There is a significant inequality in AI research according to a new paper https://arxiv.org/abs/2010.15581 

Core findings:

1.Big Tech & elite universities have increased presence in top AI conf's since the rise of deep learning

2.Their increased presence has crowded out non-elite unis

3.Overall, there is a “de-democratization of AI research” due to the rise of DL, which requires lot of computing power. There's an uneven access to computing power, which resulted in this current divergence b/n haves & have-nots, “compute divide”(similar to the “digital divide”)

4. Low representation of Blacks and Hispanics (HBCU and HACU colleges) at top AI venues (this is the first time anyone has documented the representation of minorities in top AI venues), according to the paper.

Taken together, this suggests that due to the rise of deep learning, we have even more diversity problem in AI research than ever!