Ai2 CEO Ali Farhadi named to ‘AI Power List,’ with a nod to institute’s open-source focus

Business Insider’s latest list of the most influential people in artificial intelligence is a who’s who of key players shaping what the publication calls the “next wave of AI innovation.” A notable Seattle name made the cut. Ali Farhadi, CEO of Seattle’s Allen Institute for AI (Ai2), is among 25 key players identified by BI who are stepping up to the challenges brought about by the modern AI arms race. They are “building the most powerful AI systems at the fastest rate possible” while also considering “public safety, trust, and environmental impacts,” BI reported. The list includes people across sectors, from big tech to startups to venture capital and journalism, and includes heavy hitters such as OpenAI co-founder and CEO Sam Altman, Nvidia co-founder and CEO Jensen Huang, Amazon Web Services Agentic AI VP Swami Sivasubramanian, and Anthropic co-founder and CEO Daniela Amodei. Peggy Johnson, the former Microsoft exec who leads Salem, Ore.-based Agility Robotics, also made the list. Farhadi is a longtime Seattle tech leader and computer vision specialist who founded and led Ai2 spinout Xnor.ai as CEO. He sold the AI startup to Apple in 2020 in an estimated $200 million deal that represents one of the institute’s biggest commercial successes to date. A professor in the University of Washington’s Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering, Farhadi returned to Ai2 as its CEO in July 2023. In naming Farhardi to its Power List, Business Insider noted how he and Ai2 “make AI research open and accessible to the public,” adding that “from climate modeling to healthcare, Farhadi’s work influences how institutions scale AI for the benefit of humanity.” In an appearance on the GeekWire Podcast last year, Farhadi discussed what it takes to train AI models, and the importance of open-source AI. “If the U.S. wants to maintain its edge … we have only one way, and that is to promote open approaches, promote open-source solutions,” Farhadi said at the time. “Because no matter how many dollars you’re investing in an ecosystem, without communal, global efforts, you’re not going to be as fast.” Related: Ai2 releases Olmo 3 open models, rivaling Meta, DeepSeek and others on performance and efficiency Allen Institute for AI lands $152M from Nvidia and NSF to lead national AI project Ai2 and Google Cloud join Cancer AI Alliance with a total of $20M in commitments