Trends in AI indicate steady increase in jobs, research, investment

Artificial Intelligence. It seems to be the topic of most technology news stories in the past couple of years. AI dominates conversations about the future of everything from cities to healthcare and education. And yet many of us don’t fully understand its trajectory.

"We are essentially 'flying blind' in our conversations and decision-making related to AI," says a new report authored by Stanford University-based group AI100 (the One Hundred Year Study on AI).

This report, titled the Artificial Intelligence Index 2017, shows that the number of active US startups developing AI systems has increased by a factor of 14 since 2000, while annual VC investment into these kinds of startups has increased by a factor of six in that same time period. Meanwhile, the share of jobs requiring AI skills in the US has grown by a factor of 4.5 since 2013.

This growth is reflected in those researching and learning about AI: the number of students enrolling in Standford’s ‘introduction to AI’ class since1996 has increased by a factor of 11 while the number of research papers published on this topic has increased six fold in the same time period.