The AI for Humanity Award recognizes the positive impacts of artificial intelligence to protect, enhance, and improve human life in meaningful ways with long-lived effects.
The award is given annually at the conference for the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) and is accompanied by a prize of $25,000 plus travel expenses to the conference. Financial support for the award is provided by Squirrel Ai Learning. The award was given for the first time in 2021.
2025
Stuart J. Russell (University of California, Berkley, USA)
For his work on the conceptual and theoretical foundations of provably beneficial AI and his leadership in creating the field of AI safety.
Past Recipients
2024
Milind Tambe (Harvard University/Google Research, USA)
For ground-breaking applications of novel AI techniques to public safety and security, conservation, and public health, benefiting humanity on an international scale.
2023
Tuomas Sandholm (Carnegie Mellon University, USA)
For outstanding scientific and software contributions to the design and implementation of organ exchanges, and their direct impact on both practice and policy.
2022
Cynthia Rudin (Duke University, USA)
For pioneering scientific work in the area of interpretable and transparent AI systems in real-world deployments, the advocacy for these features in highly sensitive areas such as social justice and medical diagnosis, and serving as a role model for researchers and practitioners.
2021 (Inaugural Award)
Regina Barzilay (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA)
In recognition of her fundamental advances in AI for healthcare, being a proactive community builder and role model, and demonstrating a significant impact in people’s lives through cancer diagnosis, drug-resistant microbe antibiotics, and drug discovery.
FAQs
How was this award established?
The AAAI Award for Artificial Intelligence for the Benefit of Humanity was established in 2019 as the result of a cooperative initiative between AAAI and Squirrel Ai Learning to recognize the positive impacts of artificial intelligence to protect, enhance, and improve human life in meaningful ways with long-lived effects.
Press Release, 2019 Announcement
Is it appropriate for an organization to self-nominate? If the nominee is an organization, must all 3-8 endorsers be from a different organization?
As with most awards, seeking external nominators and endorsers is usually better.
Can an individual or organization submit a body of work for the award, or should it be a single product/application?
There are no constraints regarding nominating a body of work vs. a single application.
Is there any limit on the number of people in the team that is nominated?
There is no limit on the number of people on the nominated team.
The work is still ongoing and holds great promise, will it be considered if its impact has been limited so far?
If the impact has been limited, the nomination is likely to be premature and should probably wait until the impact is more significant.
The results have not been published yet, will the contributions be considered?
The nomination should present compelling evidence of the contributions and impact.