The Stanford HAI (Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence) research institute has just released it's Artificial Intelligence Index Report 2023.

The 386-page paper is out, and it's packed with data and insights on the latest trends in AI. The report tracks, collates, distills, and visualizes data related to artificial intelligence.

The report's key takeaways include:

Industry races ahead of academia.

Until 2014, most significant machine learning models were released by academia. Since then, industry has taken over. In 2022, there were 32 significant industry-produced machine learning models compared to just three produced by academia. Building state-of-the-art AI systems increasingly requires large amounts of data, computer power, and money—resources that industry actors inherently possess in greater amounts compared to nonprofits and academia.

Performance saturation on traditional benchmarks.

AI continued to post state-of-the-art results, but year-over-year improvement on many benchmarks continues to be marginal. Moreover, the speed at which benchmark saturation is being reached is increasing. However, new, more comprehensive benchmarking suites such as BIG-bench and HELM are being released.

AI is both helping and harming the environment.

New research suggests that AI systems can have serious environmental impacts. According to Luccioni et al., 2022, BLOOM’s training run emitted 25 times more carbon than a single air traveler on a one-way trip from New York to San Francisco. Still, new reinforcement learning models like BCOOLER show that AI systems can be used to optimize energy usage.

The world’s best new scientist ... AI?

AI models are starting to rapidly accelerate scientific progress and in 2022 were used to aid hydrogen fusion, improve the efficiency of matrix manipulation, and generate new antibodies.

The number of incidents concerning the misuse of AI is rapidly rising.

According to the AIAAIC database, which tracks incidents related to the ethical misuse of AI, the number of AI incidents and controversies has increased 26 times since 2012. Some notable incidents in 2022 included a deepfake video of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy surrendering and U.S. prisons using call-monitoring technology on their inmates. This growth is evidence of both greater use of AI technologies and awareness of misuse possibilities.

The demand for AI-related professional skills is increasing across virtually every American industrial sector.

Across every sector in the United States for which there is data (with the exception of agriculture, forestry, fishing, and hunting), the number of AI- related job postings has increased on average from 1.7% in 2021 to 1.9% in 2022. Employers in the United States are increasingly looking for workers with AI- related skills.

For the first time in the last decade, year-over-year private investment in AI decreased.

Global AI private investment was $91.9 billion in 2022, which represented a 26.7% decrease since 2021. The total number of AI-related funding events as well as the number of newly funded AI companies likewise decreased. Still, during the last decade as a whole, AI investment has significantly increased. In 2022 the amount of private investment in AI was 18 times greater than it was in 2013.

While the proportion of companies adopting AI has plateaued, the companies that have adopted AI continue to pull ahead.

The proportion of companies adopting AI in 2022 has more than doubled since 2017, though it has plateaued in recent years between 50% and 60%, according to the results of McKinsey’s annual research survey. Organizations that have adopted AI report realizing meaningful cost decreases and revenue increases.

Policymaker interest in AI is on the rise.

An AI Index analysis of the legislative records of 127 countries shows that the number of bills containing “artificial intelligence” that were passed into law grew from just 1 in 2016 to 37 in 2022. A growing number of countries are developing national AI strategies, and many are considering regulations to govern the development and use of AI.

The 2023 AI Index Report is a must-read for anyone who wants to understand the trends in AI and how they are shaping the world. The report is available for free download on the HAI website.