Columbia University hosted an AI Summit this week that had participants from multiple faculties across three different campuses. The institution is renowned for its contributions in the field.
Topics covered at the one-day event included the influence of AI in cancer care, ways in which artificial intelligence influences leadership, new frontiers of the technology and ways in which machine learning can help solve the climate crisis.
The summit concluded with keynote speech titled Robots and the Search for Universal Intelligence: How Machines Learn to Move, Think, and Adapt. Sami Haddadin, Director of the Munich Institute of Robotics and Machine Intelligence in Germany, gave the presentation.
“We listened to experts across faculties share interdisciplinary insights into the impact AI is having now, where it is going in the future, and avenues for regulation and governance,” Justine Landis-Hanley, an investigative journalism student from the school, said in a LinkedIn post.
The event was organized by Columbia AI — an organization established to help integrate artificial intelligence throughout the entire university.
AI data can be used for good, but it’s not without bias or imperfection, says @ColumbiaMSPH Zhonghua Liu at a #ColumbiaAI Summit discussion of medical applications of AI on mental health and brain science. pic.twitter.com/YCrgZj26Cs
— The Data Science Institute at Columbia University (@DataSciColumbia) March 4, 2025
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School held a biology & AI-focused symposium last month
This isn’t the only recent event with this theme at the university. The New York school hosted the AI and Global Change Biology Symposium on Feb. 21.
It focused on how artificial intelligence can be utilized to combat environmental degradation and save biodiversity.
These events are two of many that the school will be hosting in the years to come as AI becomes increasingly used for educational purposes.
The university is home to the Columbia Center of Artificial Intelligence Technology. Therein, it collaborates on research initiatives with Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ: AMZN) (FRA: AMZ).
It is also home to the Data Science Institute, another AI-centred research facility. Moreover, the school’s Department of Computer Science is particularly known to be heavily involved with machine learning studies.
ABC's Tanya Berger-Wolf giving an awesome plenary at the Columbia symposium on AI and Global Change Biology! pic.twitter.com/6cgwflXFdJ
— AI and Biodiversity Change Global Center (@ABCGlobalCenter) February 24, 2025
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