Image created by AI

Teacher’s side project is key player in future of AI

April 2023
A high school teacher’s project has become a central player in the development of artificial intelligence.

Christoph Schuhmann teaches physics and computer science in Germany. On the side he’s been working on a project called LAION, or Large-Scale AI Open Network.

LAION offers free access to data that can be used to program artificial intelligence systems that generate images from text.

Google is among the big players that have used LAION to train their AI-programs, reports Bloomberg.

Schuhmann helped found LAION about two years ago after testing OpenAI’s DALL-E, which creates images based on text descriptions.

The 40-year-old teacher’s aim is to keep the data free so it won’t be controlled by profit-making businesses.

Reference shelf:
The Future of AI Relies on a High School Teacher’s Free Database (Bloomberg)

Amid Growing Call To Pause AI Research, LAION Petitions Governments To Keep AGI Research Open, Active And Responsible (Forbes)

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