AI Institute: Planning: Physics of the Future

人工智能(AI)的物理应用导致了最近一些最令人兴奋的突破，从天体物理学到监管基因组学和细胞成像。卡内基-梅隆大学(CMU)机器学习、统计学和其他系的科学家们积极与物理系的同事合作，因为每个领域都有机会促进对方的发展。该奖项将允许规划一个联合物理/人工智能研究所，该研究所将把人工智能的尖端方法带入广泛的物理领域，将成功的方法从一个物理领域传播到另一个领域，并促进从数据丰富的物理学子领域向人工智能发展的反向转移。这一规划阶段侧重于CMU科学家已经是领导者的领域，现有的强有力的合作，以及正在取得快速进展的领域：天体物理、亚原子物理和生物物理。人工智能对整个社会都有明显的好处，因此这个项目包括教育、公共宣传和促进多样性，使广泛的受众能够在广泛的数据上使用人工智能。应用人工智能将导致暗能量和星系形成领域的重大进展；提取关于希格斯玻色子和胶子物理反常信息的新方法；以及增强对生物网络和癌症组织预测的理解。另一方面的好处也很明显：物理学提供了复杂的用例和深刻的问题，激励人工智能研究人员推进基础人工智能。计划活动包括每周跨学科的互动研讨会；访客计划；专题会议；计划会议；研究生暑期计划；博士后指导；以及广泛的外展计划。大学、国家实验室和公司的合作伙伴将帮助规划扩大到研究所水平，并聘请顾问对不同项目的成功进行调查和量化评估。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Physics applications of Artificial Intelligence (AI) have led to some of the most exciting recent breakthroughs, from astrophysics to regulatory genomics and cellular imaging. Scientists at Carnegie-Mellon University (CMU) in Machine Learning, Statistics, and other departments actively collaborate with colleagues in the Department of Physics because of the opportunity for each field to spur development in the other. This award will allow planning of a joint Physics/AI Institute that will bring cutting edge methods from AI into a broad range of physics areas, propagate successful methods from one field of Physics to another, and facilitate back-transfer from the data-rich sub-fields of physics to AI development. This planning phase focuses on areas where CMU scientists are already leaders, with existing strong collaborations, and where rapid advances are being made: astrophysics, subatomic physics, and biophysics. AI has obvious benefits to society in general, so this project includes education, public outreach and promotion of diversity, empowering a wide range of audiences to use AI on a broad array of data.Applying AI will lead to significant advances in the areas of dark energy and galaxy formation; new ways of extracting information about the Higgs bosons and anomalies in gluon physics; and enhanced understanding of biological networks and predictions for cancerous tissues. Benefits in the other direction are clear as well: physics provides complex use cases and profound problems that motivate AI researchers to advance foundational AI. Planning activities include weekly interdisciplinary, interactive seminars; a visitor program; topical conferences; planning conferences; a graduate student summer program; postdoc mentoring; and an extensive outreach program. Help in planning to scale up to the Institute level will come from partners at universities, national laboratories, and corporations, and by employing a consultant to survey and quantitatively assess the success of different programs.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.