The philanthropic venture founded by Eric Schmidt and his wife Wendy announced that the US$148 million will fund 160 postdoctoral fellows at nine universities every year. The first cohort includes the University of Toronto and other schools in the U.S., U.K. and Singapore. (The Logic)

Talking point: Stuart Feldman, chief scientist of Schmidt Futures, told The Logic in an interview that AI has “matured rapidly and wonderfully” and a goal of the initiative is to identify “young, eager researchers who want to be innovative and new, and give them the opportunity to do it.” The fellowship will fund students applying AI to improve research in natural sciences and engineering, and it will be up to individual universities, like U of T, to select participating students. “I have the greatest respect for Canadian science, so it was not an accident that we asked Canadian universities,” Feldman said.