US National Science Foundation commits to long-term investment in artificial intelligence
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US National Science Foundation commits to long-term investment in artificial intelligence
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esearch in artificial intelligence (AI) is of significant interest because of the vast potential of AI technology to impact or completely transform many sectors within society. Recent advances in AI such as speech, image, and facial recognition, as well as language translation, are already showing up in smart technology and will continue to be utilized as AI continues to advance. Industry is already using AI to optimize processes, design better components, and increase efficiencies, all the while looking for more ways to streamline operations using AI. And on the materials front, the use of AI and machine learning (ML) are already being employed to accelerate materials discovery and design.* While the US federal government has long supported fundamental research in AI, the 2019 update to the 2016 National Artificial Intelligence Research and Development Strategic Plan identified a need to make longer-term investments in AI research. According to the updated AI Strategic Plan, much of the AI research to date has been specialized around
specific tasks, and longer-term investments are needed to expand and broaden AI into “systems that exhibit the flexibility and versatility of human intelligence in a broad range of cognitive domains.” In October 2019, the US National Science Foundation (NSF) cited the updated AI Strategic Plan’s call for longerterm investments in AI research when announcing the creation of a new interagency program to establish AI research institutes. The National Artificial Intelligence Research Institutes program will spend up to USD$124 million and provide funding for up to eight planning grants (up to two years and USD$500,000) and between one and six AI Research Institutes (4–5 years at up to USD$4 million/year). Initial areas of focus include trustworthy AI, foundations of ML, AI-driven innovation in agriculture and the food system, AI-augmented learning—and most relevant for materials research—AI for accelerating molecular synthesis and manufacturing, and AI for discovery in physics.
Credit: Photo by Andrew Kelly/New York Hall of Science.
AI artificial intelligence: the ability of computers to mimic the cognitive function of humans ML machine learning: a subset of AI where computers apply data/ information to independently update algorithms during processing; essentially the ability of the computer to learn from the data/input and adjust accordingly
The creation of this program ensures a shift from traditional short-term funding of two years to long-term investment in AI research. The NSF’s grant solicitation acknowledges this fact stating, “Among Federal research investments, institutescale activities enable multidisciplinary, multi-stakeholder teams to focus on largerscale, longer-time horizon challenges.…” “Sustained, longer-term funding [in AI] is most welcome,” says Kristofer Reyes, assistant professor of materials design and innovation at the University at Buffalo, The State University of
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