Giving Compass' Take:

• Jackie Snow explains how educational institutions and companies are working together to build the AI developer pipeline to address the developer shortage. 

• How can funders help to build a diverse and inclusive AI developer pipeline? 

• Learn how to combat AI bias. 

Greg Benson has been a University of San Francisco professor teaching computer science for the last 20 years. He’s also part of a quiet effort to solve one of the field’s growing problems.

During semesters, he spends one to two days a week at SnapLogic, a cloud integration company, and works full-time there during school breaks. Each year, he offers 10 of his machine learning master’s students the chance to intern at SnapLogic and work on AI research projects. If they do well, they can end up with a job. About a third of SnapLogic’s engineering team are former interns. “This has been wildly successful for us,” Benson said.

This is a useful recruiting method when even the tech giants are struggling for talent. But there’s also another innovation afoot: SnapLogic’s deal with Benson also shows how companies can support academics and make sure there are still professors to teach the next generation of AI researchers.

The problem is stark: Almost 60% of U.S. computer science PhDs take industry jobs after graduation, up from 38% over the last decade, according to data from the National Science Foundation published by the Wall Street Journal.

Read the full article about the AI developer pipeline by Jackie Snow at FastCompany.