Stanford launches AI100, a 100-year study of AI's impact on society

In December 2014, Stanford University announced the One Hundred Year Study on Artificial Intelligence, widely known as AI100. The project was conceived by Eric Horvitz, a Microsoft researcher and former president of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence, and his wife Mary, who helped endow it. It was hosted at Stanford.

The idea was to create a lasting, independent institution that would track how AI developed and how it affected people, rather than leaving the question to one-off studies. A standing committee of scientists and scholars was set up to choose themes and appoint a study panel of experts roughly every five years. Each panel would publish a public assessment of progress, risks and policy questions, covering areas such as work, safety, law, ethics and healthcare.

The first report, "Artificial Intelligence and Life in 2030", appeared in September 2016. It looked at how AI might change a typical North American city across several sectors. A second report followed in 2021, and later editions continued the series. The project mattered because it offered a long-running, academically grounded reference point on AI's social impact, which later reports could compare against.