Key takeaways
• SRI AI expert Ray Perrault has played a leading role in Stanford’s influential Artificial Intelligence Index Report since 2017.
• The new 2026 report provides an invaluable perspective on just how quickly AI is accelerating.
“The data does not point in a single direction. It reveals a field that is scaling faster than the systems around it can adapt,” write SRI’s Ray Perrault and his AI Index Steering Committee co-chair Yolanda Gil in their introduction to the 2026 Artificial Intelligence Index Report.
Produced annually by Stanford’s Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence (HAI), this report is perhaps the most comprehensive effort to take the pulse of global AI innovation. This year’s 423-page report covers critical topics such as notable AI model releases, AI safety efforts, data center computing capacity and environmental footprint, and AI’s evolving role in medicine.
“AI researchers have long recognized the immense and potentially world-changing implications of AI. But the sheer pace of change in the past several years isn’t something we could have anticipated.” — Ray Perrault
Perrault, a distinguished computer scientist at SRI, has co-chaired the AI Index Steering Committee since 2017. His broad perspective on AI’s past, present, and future is informed by his longtime role as the director of SRI’s Artificial Intelligence Center — one of the world’s first AI-dedicated research groups — which celebrates its 60th anniversary this year. While directing the AI Center from 1988 to 2017, Perrault oversaw groundbreaking work in areas like natural language processing, agentic systems, and machine learning.
SRI’s foundational work in AI paved the way for many of the AI capabilities that are now reshaping industry, communication, and security. SRI continues to deliver new AI-driven capabilities in areas like education, security, and bioscience.
“Having been immersed in AI since the 1970s, I’m both surprised and not surprised by where we find ourselves today,” Perrault comments. “AI researchers have long recognized the immense and potentially world-changing implications of AI. But the sheer pace of change in the past several years isn’t something we could have anticipated. My hope is that our collective work on the AI Index helps individuals and organizations gracefully negotiate this unprecedented acceleration.”
Learn more about how SRI is bringing responsible AI innovations out of the lab and into the real world.
