NSF announces new AI test beds initiative to advance safety and security of AI technologies

The U.S. National Science Foundation announces the launch of a new initiative that will invest in the development of artificial intelligence-ready test beds, a critical infrastructure designed to propel responsible AI research and innovation forward. These test beds, or platforms, will allow researchers to study new AI methods and systems in secure, real-world settings. The initiative calls for planning grants from the research community to accelerate the development of the test beds. 

The initiative is aligned with Executive Order 14410 on the “Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence,” signed in October 2023, underscoring the importance of creating a robust ecosystem for AI development that prioritizes safety, security and trustworthy considerations. The executive order emphasizes the extraordinary potential of AI to address urgent societal challenges while also highlighting the risks associated with possible irresponsible use. Recognizing this dual potential, NSF’s AI-ready test beds initiative is set to enhance and advance the essential infrastructure needed for researchers to develop, test and refine responsible AI systems in real-world settings. 

“Artificial intelligence holds incredible promise for advancing numerous fields, but its development must be guided by rigorous testing and evaluation in applications that involve decisions about, or contact with, people in the real world,” said NSF Director Sethuraman Panchanathan. “With this initiative, NSF is demonstrating its commitment to innovate in AI and also ensure that those innovations are safe, secure and beneficial to society and our economy.”

AI-ready test beds create an environment where AI researchers can deploy and assess the impact of their work and study the societal and economic impacts of AI-powered solutions, including various risks related to security, safety, privacy and fairness. For example, an AI-ready test bed may enable a researcher to evaluate a new AI solution for decision-making in a transportation scenario, or a test bed could allow an AI researcher to create new weather models and visualizations and assess them with meteorologists in the field. The infrastructure allows the researcher to innovate safely and collect real-world evidence that is beneficial to the intended users. 

Projects funded by the initiative will lay the framework for providing researchers with scalable, real-world environments to test novel AI methods and their impacts. These test beds will support interdisciplinary collaborations, bringing together private AI laboratories, academia, civil society and third-party evaluators to support the design, development and deployment of AI systems, including associated privacy-enhancing technologies.

The initiative will offer planning grants to cultivate research teams that actively address the expansion or enhancement of an existing test bed to evaluate the impact on and interaction with users of novel AI methods. These grants will facilitate the collection of preliminary data, team formation, design efforts and the development of governance and management plans for scalable AI-ready test beds.

NSF encourages proposal submissions from institutions in the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) jurisdictions and collaborative proposals led by NSF EPSCoR institutions. This approach aims to engage a wide array of perspectives and scientific talent in addressing national AI research challenges and opportunities.

To learn more, read the Dear Colleague Letter: https://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2024/nsf24111/nsf24111.jsp

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