Massachusetts Institute of Technology is launching an ambitious programme, involving hundreds of researchers across the university, to understand human intelligence and apply that knowledge to develop intelligent machines.

The MIT Intelligence Quest or MIT IQ, based at an institution that has been at the forefront of artificial intelligence research since the 1950s, is a far-reaching academic effort to regain the initiative in AI. It comes at a time when the technology industry’s fast-growing research labs threaten to suck the field’s most talented scientists, engineers and ideas away from universities.

“We plan to raise hundreds of millions of dollars from the private and public sectors for this effort,” said Anantha Chandrakasan, MIT dean of engineering. “We are having discussions with a broad set of companies that have shown great enthusiasm for the initiative.”