Tomás Díaz de la Rubia

The summit, “Artificial Intelligence for American Industry,” was held by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, and was hosted by White House deputy assistant for technology policy Michael Kratsios.

The summit included representatives from 38 companies, including such familiar names as Microsoft, Ford, United Airlines, Intel, Facebook, Google and Amazon.

AI experts from seven other universities also attended the meeting: the California Institute of Technology; Carnegie Mellon University; Georgia Institute of Technology; Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Stanford University; the University of California, Berkeley; and the University of Michigan.

“It was an honor to represent Purdue at this important meeting. We discussed how we can best position the United States to lead the world in research and implementation of artificial intelligence,” Díaz de la Rubia said. “I want to thank the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy for convening this event.”

Díaz de la Rubia said the one-day White House summit was a perfect fit with the current strategic initiatives underway at Purdue, especially Purdue’s recently announced Integrative Data Science Initiative.

“Through our internal strategy and investments, we’re ensuring that Purdue will be a preferred destination for American industry to develop and implement future advances in this technology,” he said. "And Purdue students will be ready to enter the workforce with a deep understanding of the many ways AI is transforming American business.”

The purpose of the meeting, according to a White House statement, was to accelerate progress and the use of AI in applications such as robotics, medical diagnostics and data analysis. Artificial intelligence is often heralded as the next disruptive technology. AI is already the brains behind familiar parts of our daily lives such as Siri on iPhones, facial recognition on Facebook and Amazon Alexa.

But the effects over the next two decades is expected to be massive, the global management consulting firm Accenture predicts in its report, Accenture Technology Vision 2017, that AI has the potential to double annual economic growth by 2035.

“Participation in forums such as this one at the White House is testament to the fact that Purdue is at the intellectual center of research on AI, data tools, and next-generation computing,” Díaz de la Rubia said.

Purdue is aggressively increasing the number of research projects in AI, algorithms and data science to boost the implementation of these new technologies in areas such as drug discovery, autonomous vehicles and manufacturing, he said.

“We’re seeing exponential advances in data science in general, and Purdue’s Integrative Data Science Initiative puts us at the forefront of this rapidly moving field.”

Source: White House artificial intelligence summit includes Purdue expert