Yesterday, Forbes published a terrific interview with UW CSE professor Oren Etzioni, CEO of the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence. During the conversation with magazine contributor Peter High, Etzioni shared his thoughts on a wide range of topics, including how artificial intelligence can benefit humanity, what he learned from starting multiple companies, and how his own students and interns help him to stay on the cutting edge of a fast-moving field.
Etzioni explained that he and institute founder Paul Allen aim to build a team “that punches above its weight” to advance AI research, saying, “Ultimately, to me, the computer is just a big pencil. What can we sketch using this pencil that makes a positive difference to society, and advances the state of the art, hopefully in an out-sized way?”
Read the full interview here or listen to the audio here.