Carnegie Mellon announces $110M AI initiative

Carnegie Mellon University has joined Japanese higher education institutions and the University of Washington in a $110 million partnership for AI research and innovation.

CMU and Keio University in Japan will collaborate on ways to advance AI technology. The partnership includes faculty, researchers and students. They will also collaborate with industry partners.

“This new partnership is global in its scope and single-minded in its purpose to advance AI research and impact,” said CMU President Farnam Jahanian.

The agreements were announced during Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio’s state visit to the U.S. by U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo, U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel and Japanese Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Moriyama Masahito.

The University of Washington will collaborate with the University of Tsukuba to leverage private sector investment from global companies, including Amazon, Arm, Microsoft, NVIDIA and SoftBank Group, as well as a consortium of Japanese companies.

CMU will receive its funding and support from Arm, Microsoft and SoftBank Group.

Several public and private sector leaders attended the signing ceremony hosted by the U.S. Department of Commerce, and others expressed their support of the partnership.

“Artificial Intelligence is already impacting every sector of our economy — and government leaders need to lean into its innovation to adapt to the rapidly changing technology market ethically and responsibly,” Gov. Josh Shapiro said.