I post this not only because it might be of interest to HN'ers, but this is a huge bet by a university, isn't it?

Who is funding these positions? Unis are notoriously short of money. If I were to apply I would want to know how financially "safe" my position will be.

From TFA:

> In the past five years, faculty at UMD have collectively published over 1300 papers, been awarded over $160m in AI-related research grants...

Indeed: "In the past". That's part of Uni's business model though.

Yeah, fair enough. I could not find any better info about a new money source with regard to this new hiring spree.