Paul Allen (1953–2018) co-founded Microsoft and founded the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence in 2014. His role in AI was institution-building and funding: creating a home for sustained research and public scientific resources.[1][2][6]
Start with Allen’s research institutions →
Education
Links
Official legacy website Ai2Career
Allen and Bill Gates founded Microsoft in 1975, following their work on BASIC for the Altair computer. Allen later directed substantial resources toward scientific institutions. Washington State University describes his attendance from 1971 to 1974; attendance is not a completed university degree.[4][5]
Contributions
The Allen institutes developed a model of organized, collaborative research and publicly accessible resources, beginning with brain science. His estate’s account distinguishes these bioscience institutes from Ai2, a separate organization launched in 2014. For someone following AI today, Allen’s significance is the research infrastructure and continuing institution he made possible, rather than authorship of models released after his death.[3][1]
Tools, writing & talks
Writing, research & talks
Start here
Allen’s research institutionspaulallen.comAn estate-published account of the institutes Allen founded and their distinct scientific missions.
Start with the distinction between the bioscience institutes and the separately founded AI institute. Follow the Ai2 link for the organization’s present work. This is an estate-published account of Allen’s institutional legacy, rather than a technical paper he authored.
Founder; institutional legacy[3]- Ai2: mission and historyallenai.org
The institute’s own explanation of its founding and present research mission.
Founder[1] - Microsoft in 1975learn.microsoft.com
Microsoft’s historical account of the company’s founding and Altair BASIC.
Co-founder[4]