Amazon Puts $110M Into Academic Generative AI Research; A new initiative will help universities access powerful AI tools

Amazon is investing $110 million in university-led generative AI research through its Build on Trainium initiative, offering researchers access to 40,000 specialized chips. Associate Professor Julian Togelius — who co-wrote a tongue-in-cheek paper about the lack of computing power available to academic AI researchers — welcomes the initiative but emphasizes the need for academics to focus on unique research directions: "You want to focus on what the large tech companies are not investing in for one reason or another — it’s too narrow, it’s experimental, it’s got weird optics — the kind of things that you can’t sell to a venture capitalist or to shareholders. Academics need to double down on the weirdness.”