# About us - We’re Ai2

We are a Seattle based non-profit AI research institute founded in 2014 by the late Paul Allen. We develop foundational AI research and innovation to deliver real-world impact through large-scale open models, data, robotics, conservation, and beyond.

## Our mission - Building breakthrough AI to solve the world’s biggest problems.

### Our people behind the AI

We unite the best and brightest scientific and engineering minds to explore the potential of truly open AI. Through close collaboration, we rapidly identify, define, and act on the most exciting and promising new ideas in our industry.

To us, a variety of skills, experiences, and backgrounds is key to building the safest, most effective open AI technology. We invest in research into accessibility and inclusive user experiences, intentional hiring practices, and community building.

[See our faces](/content/team/index.html)

## Our core values - What we care about

### Openness

True openness means more than open source. By keeping an open mind and sharing everything we make, we bring the AI community together to answer research questions and build solutions that advance the whole field together.

### Science

We’re grounded in science. Scientific methods help us find breakthroughs that are rigorous and reproducible and allow us to deliver innovations at the forefront of AI.

### Impact

Focus lets us take bigger bets and optimize the impact of every endeavor to prioritize what matters most. This means we concentrate on the projects that will make the biggest difference.

### Collaboration

Greatness is never achieved alone. We foster the conditions for deep collaboration internally and work closely with partners externally to stay at the forefront of impactful AI innovations.

## The person who started it all - Paul Allen

Philanthropist and Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen founded Ai2 in 2014 to find transformative ways to develop AI to address some of the world’s biggest challenges. It’s his vision that enables us to push the boundaries of what’s possible.

[Learn about Paul](https://paulallen.com/)

## Meet the board

Each one of them brings unique expertise and deep experience to help guide Ai2’s direction and deliver on our mission.

**Jody Allen**  
Trustee, Paul G. Allen Trust, Co-founder and Chair, Allen Institute, Co-founder and Chair, Allen Family Philanthropies, Chair, Fund for Science and Technology

**Ana Mari Cauce**  
[33rd President of the University of Washington](https://www.washington.edu/anamaricauce/amc/)

**Steve Hall**  
[Venture Partner, Cercano Management](https://cercanolp.com/)

**Bill Hilf (Chairman)**  
[Chairman](https://www.linkedin.com/in/bill-h-b554/)

**Ed Lazowska**  
[Professor, Bill & Melinda Gates Chair Emeritus, UW Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering](http://www.cs.washington.edu/people/faculty/lazowska)

## Scientific excellence

Our scientific advisory board members offer invaluable guidance in our pursuit of impactful research in AI.

**Adam Cheyer**  
[VP of AI Experience at Airbnb, co-founder of Siri](http://adam.cheyer.com/site/home)

**David Forsyth**  
[Fulton Watson Copp Chair in Computer Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Fellow of IEEE and ACM](http://luthuli.cs.uiuc.edu/~daf/)

**Eric Horvitz**  
[Technical Fellow and Chief Scientific Officer of Microsoft, Fellow of AAAI, ACM, NAE, AAAS; AAAI President (2007-09)](http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/people/horvitz/)

**Mirella Lapata**  
[Professor at University of Edinburgh School of Informatics, BCS Karen Sparck Jones Award 2009, SIGDAT President 2018, Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, ACL, and Academia Europaea](https://www.turing.ac.uk/people/turing-ai-fellows/mirella-lapata)

**Tom Mitchell**  
[Founders University Professor at Carnegie Mellon University, Fellow of AAAI and AAAS, AAAI Distinguished Service Award 2007](http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~tom/)

**Aude Oliva**  
[Director of Strategic Industry Engagement at the MIT Schwarzman College of Computing, Director of MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab, Senior Research Scientist at MIT](http://olivalab.mit.edu/audeoliva.html)

**Dan Roth**  
[Eduardo D. Glandt Distinguished Professor at the University of Pennsylvania and Chief AI Scientist at Oracle, Fellow of AAAS, ACM, AAAI, and ACL, John McCarthy Award (IJCAI) 2017](http://www.cis.upenn.edu/~danroth/)