The initiative comes amid a growing gap between AI academia and industry, with the latter often having access to more resources. In 2021, AI industry worldwide spent more than $340 billion overall, while U.S. government agencies allocated only $1.5 billion for academic funding for AI research. Despite efforts to bridge this gap, such as the U.S. National AI Research Resource, a $2.6 billion initiative providing AI researchers and students with access to computational resources and datasets, the disparity remains significant.
Key takeaways:
- Amazon Web Services (AWS) is launching a new grant program for AI research called Build on Trainium, which will award $110 million total to institutions, scientists, and students researching AI.
- AWS will provide up to $11 million each in Trainium credits to universities with strategic partnerships, and individual grants up to $500,000 to the broader AI research community.
- There are concerns that AWS will have the final say on which projects receive grants, and that corporate-backed AI research tends to favor work with commercial applications over other areas of study.
- Despite these initiatives, there is a significant gap between AI academia and industry, with the latter spending significantly more on AI research and attracting a large portion of AI Ph.D. graduates due to competitive salaries and access to essential resources.