SAN FRANCISCO — Like most people in high tech these days, Uncle Sam is upping his investment in AI. The Defense Advanced Projects Research Agency (DARPA) announced a new program on Friday that will add an estimated $100 million a year to its current spending on machine learning.

The AI Exploration program will initially spend about $10 to 20 million to fund a set of feasibility studies to generate ideas worth pursuing. They are expected to spawn larger projects that will eventually bump DARPA’s total estimated spending on AI in its various forms to as much as $400 million annually.

“We hope we will have a conference next summer focusing on what we will do in AI,” said Steven Walker, DARPA’s director, speaking at an event here on the agency’s Electronics Resurgence Initiative.

Walker said that he hopes to get companies and universities under contract for feasibility studies within 90 days. By the end of the year, he hopes to hire about five program managers for the initiative and start announcing some specific programs.

The initial announcement calls for ideas targeting a “third wave of AI,” loosely described as systems that use context to adapt to changing circumstances. The agency already manages a number of programs that involve machine learning in some form.

DARPA managers and researchers at the event here talked about computers that learn in the field as a next big leap in AI. They suggested that the industry is already making adequate investments in making today’s deep-learning systems more efficient.

The agency will spend up to $1 million on the feasibility studies. The larger programs will be expected to deliver working prototypes with significance for commercial and military uses.

DARPA already manages about 80 programs related to the use of AI and 25 on the fundamental technology. Click to enlarge. (Image: DARPA)