On Thursday, a large group of university and private industry researchers unveiled Genesis, a new open source computer simulation system that lets robots practice tasks in simulated reality 430,000 times faster than in the real world. Researchers can also use an AI agent to generate 3D physics simulations from text prompts.
The accelerated simulation means a neural network for piloting robots can spend the virtual equivalent of decades learning to pick up objects, walk, or manipulate tools during just hours of real computer time.
"One hour of compute time gives a robot 10 years of training experience. That's how Neo was able to learn martial arts in a blink of an eye in the Matrix Dojo," wrote Genesis paper co-author Jim Fan on X, who says he played a "minor part" in the research. Fan has previously worked on severalrobotics simulation projects for Nvidia.
AI training data has a big price tag, one best-suited for deep-pocketed tech firms. This is why Harvard University plans to release a dataset that includes in the region of 1 million public-domain books, spanning genres, languages, and authors including Dickens, Dante, and Shakespeare, which are no longer copyright-protected due to their age. The new […]
More universities are starting to offer degrees in artificial intelligence.
Thomas Barwick/Getty Images
More universities are offering degrees in artificial intelligence, so BI rounded them up.
The AI major offerings have launched as Big Tech invests heavily in LLMs and AI products.
Other institutes are offering graduate degrees in AI or degrees with AI specializations.
Universities are evolving their offerings in the age of artificial intelligence. Now, students have the option to pursue a full degree dedicated to AI.
As more colleges introduce an AI major, it means the computer science degree, long viewed as a pipeline into Big Tech, has some more competition.
The new AI majors arrive as the industry goes through change, with many tech companies investing heavily in LLMs and generative AI products while simultaneously tightening their belts and trimming staff.
The battle for top AI talent — researchers and engineers at the top of their game — is fierce, with CEOs personally trying to woo hires.
A degree in AI may prove tempting for current and future students hoping to get training and experience with LLMs and generative AI early in their careers. While computer science degrees can cover a wide array of fields, including computer programming, data science, computer systems analysis, and more, AI jobs can require more specific skills in machine learning and algorithms.
Universities are quickly looking to step in and fill that gap.
Professor David Garlan, the associate dean for Carnegie Mellon's computer science master's program, told BI that as the AI revolution continues to sweep industries, education is also adapting to keep up.
"You'll see AI sort of permeating pretty much any curriculum these days," he said. "That's here to stay."
Undergraduate degrees
Carnegie Mellon is one institute that has already created a bachelor of science in artificial intelligence, a trend that is already picking up steam across other universities.
In February, the University of Pennsylvania became the first Ivy League school to announce an undergraduate degree in AI. Beginning this academic year, students earning a BSE in Artificial Intelligence can explore courses in machine learning, computing algorithms, data analytics, and advanced robotics.
"We are training students for jobs that don't yet exist in fields that may be completely new or revolutionized by the time they graduate," said Robert Ghrist, Associate Dean of Undergraduate Education in Penn Engineering, in a statement at the time.
Universities that have begun to offer Bachelor of Sciences in Artificial Intelligence include:
Carnegie Mellon University
University of Pennsylvania
California Institute of Technology
Dakota State University
Illinois Institute of Technology
Keiser University
Long Island University
New England Institute of Technology
Oakland University
UC Santa Barbara
University of Texas San Antonio
Some institutes that don't have dedicated AI degrees still offer concentrations in AI and/or machine learning.
"Something like mechanical engineering or civil engineering will typically have a version of the program with an emphasis on AI and a more traditional degree that students might take," Garlan said.
For example, Boston University students earning a BS in biomedical, computer, electrical, or mechanical engineering can pursue a concentration in machine learning. Stanford University's symbolic systems degree and Carnegie Mellon's computer science degree also offer AI concentrations. Meanwhile, Duke University's CS degree offers a concentration that covers both AI and machine learning.
Graduate Degrees
Graduate degrees in AI offer a great specialization to those who completed a CS major in undergrad or simply those looking to get into the field after earning their bachelor's degree.
Some institutes that don't have undergraduate degrees still offer graduate degree programs in AI, both online and in-person.
Schools that offer an MS, MSE, or ME in specifically artificial intelligence include:
Carnegie Mellon
Duke
John Hopkins
John Hopkins University
UCLA
University of Texas at Austin
Some schools that offer master's in computer science with AI or machine learning specializations include:
Columbia University
Cornell University
Georgia Institute of Technology
Rice University
Stanford University
USC
For students nearing college or selecting a major, there's no one perfect track, and there are plenty of factors to consider.
With the addition of these undergraduate and graduate degrees, students who know they want a career in AI now have more pathways to choose from — with more likely on the way as universities seek to stay competitive.
The week before Thanksgiving, Marshall Brain sent a final email to his colleagues at North Carolina State University. "I have just been through one of the most demoralizing, depressing, humiliating, unjust processes possible with the university," wrote the founder of HowStuffWorks.com and director of NC State's Engineering Entrepreneurs Program. Hours later, campus police found that Brain had died by suicide.
NC State police discovered Brain unresponsive in Engineering Building II on Centennial Campus around 7 am on November 20, following a welfare check request from his wife at 6:40 am, according to The Technician, NC State's student newspaper. Police confirmed Brain was deceased when they arrived.
Brian Gordon, a reporter for The News and Observer in Raleigh, obtained a copy of Brain's death certificate and shared it with Ars Technica, confirming the suicide. It marks an abrupt end to a life rich with achievement and the joy of spreading technical knowledge to others.
Larry Ellison plans to invest up to $165 million into research at the University of Oxford.
The investment aims to transform research into products, focusing on key global challenges.
The Ellison Institute of Technology is opening a campus in Oxford in 2027.
Larry Ellison is betting big on research and development in the UK by investing at least $127 million through his technology institute to help turn scientific discoveries at the University of Oxford into products.
The Ellison Institute of Technology, set up by the Oracle cofounder in 2015, plans to invest £130 million ($165 million) overall to fund joint research projects at the university in areas ranging from health to clean energy.
Ellison said in a press release that the joint venture's mission is to "have a global impact by fundamentally reimagining the way science and technology translate into end-to-end solutions for humanity's most challenging problems."
"This long-term, strategic partnership with the University of Oxford is at the heart of delivering on that goal," he added. "By collaborating on transformational, world-class research programs harnessing new technology and compute capability we will together deliver positive impact on society at scale."
The Oracle cofounder, now the world's fourth richest person, founded The Ellison Institute of Technology as a research and development center for healthcare.
The center announced plans to build a campus in Oxford in 2023, which is set to open in 2027. The $1.27 billion development will include labs, supercomputing facilities, and cancer research clinics.
The EIT will inject millions into joint research projects with the University of Oxford to dedicate to what Professor Irene Tracey, the university's vice-chancellor, described in a press release as "humanity's most pressing challenges."
The joint center's research will focus on EIT's four "Humane Endeavours": health and medical science, sustainable agriculture, clean energy, and government innovation in the age of AI.
Professor Sir John Bell, the president of EIT Oxford, said in a statement that the alliance "comes at an exciting time in the technological revolution."
"By combining world-class research with long-term capital investment and state-of-the-art facilities, we will tackle some of society's biggest challenges," he said. "Whether it's advancing new approaches for healthcare or solving the issues of food security, we will make progress using the brightest and most creative human minds available."
Bell told the FT the investment would also help secure the intellectual property rights of innovations that come out of the center and its researchers — something the science minister, Lord Patrick Vallance, told the outlet the UK had been falling behind on.
The deal also includes £30 million ($38 million) to provide scholarships to more than 100 undergraduate and postgraduate students, with the first intake starting in October 2025.
Ellison owns 40% of the business software company Oracle, and his net worth has more than doubled over the past two years to $181 billion.
OpenAI is funding academic research into algorithms that can predict humans’ moral judgements. In a filing with the IRS, OpenAI Inc., OpenAI’s nonprofit org, disclosed that it awarded a grant to Duke University researchers for a project titled “Research AI Morality.” Contacted for comment, an OpenAI spokesperson pointed to a press release indicating the award […]
Auli'i Cravalho appeared in the remake of "Mean Girls" this year.
Arturo Holmes/Getty Images
Auli'i Cravahlo told "Podcrushed" about deferring a Columbia University place in favor of her career.
She said she was wary of halting her acting journey because she was the "breadwinner" for her family.
Actors including Glen Powell and Anne Hathaway have also paused their education for their careers.
Auli'i Cravalho, the voice of Moana, said she decided to pause her education aspiration over fears her acting career would lose steam.
Cravalho began her acting career at 14, debuting as Disney's first Polynesian princess in 2016's "Moana." The film was nominated for two Oscars and grossed $643 million worldwide.
Since then, Cravalho has voice-acted in several TV shows and video games, starred in films including 2024's "Mean Girls," and appeared in multiple stage shows.
Still, Moana is her most popular role as she prepares to return the character in "Moana 2," which is out next week.
Appearing on the "Podcrushed" podcast to promote the movie, Cravalho spoke about being accepted to Columbia University in 2021 to study environmental science.
The actor told Scary Mommy last year she'd deferred her place because she was "so scared that the industry would just move on and forget about me."
Cravalho voiced Moana in both the first film and its sequel.
Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
"There is a sense of the train is moving and do I bring it to a halt because I know for a fact that I'm not able to focus on those two things at once," Cravalho said in this week's interview. "I know I would have to pause one or give less of myself to the other, which doesn't feel fair."
Cravalho told Scary Mommy and The Cut last year she now has to reapply to Columbia because she deferred her place too many times.
Many actors and musicians have paused or dropped out of college to pursue careers. Celebrities like Glen Powell, Anne Hathaway, Jake Gyllenhaal, and Timothée Chalamet have been successful in doing so.
Powell is finishing his degree at the University of Texas this year after becoming one of Hollywood's brightest new stars.
Cravalho said she still wants to return to her degree and would be the first in her immediate family to go to college.
"I'm also the breadwinner for my family," she said. "I'm a smidge worried about taking a break and doing all four years. I've budgeted it all out. I'd make it, but it would be close. I look forward to doing that in the next decade when I feel more secure."
Auli'i Cravalho sports a red handprint at the New York premiere of "The Power."
Kevin Mazur/Getty Images
The number of people enrolling for undergraduate degrees fell from 18 million to 15.4 million between 2010 and 2021, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.
Although the center said enrollment rose last year for the first time since the pandemic, higher education appears to be losing its appeal for some young people.
In May, Deloitte published a survey of 14,468 Gen Z and 8,373 millennials across 44 countries about their attitudes toward the world and their financial conditions.
It found that a third of respondents had chosen to skip higher education, citing financial barriers as the prime reason.
In 2023, Business Insider, in collaboration with YouGov, surveyed more than 1,800 Americans across five generations, including more than 600 Gen Z respondents above the age of 18, and found that 46% of Gen Z respondents didn't think college was worth the cost.
That poses a challenge for colleges and universities.
Joseph Fuller, a professor at Harvard Business School and co-lead of its "Managing the Future of Work" initiative, told BI last year: "They're going to have to work to demonstrate to potential students that graduates of their programs can enjoy success and a lifestyle that will support income level and support a household with a decent lifestyle."
