AI Institute: AI Research Institute for Fundamental Interactions

人工智能和基础相互作用研究所(IAIFI)将通过开发纳入基础物理学基本原理的新型人工智能方法，实现物理学发现，并推动基础人工智能(AI)的发展。人工智能正在改变社会的许多方面，包括科学家寻求突破性发现的方式。多年来，物理学家一直站在应用人工智能方法研究关于宇宙的基本问题的前沿。例如，人工智能在希格斯玻色子的发现和研究中发挥了关键作用，希格斯玻色子是粒子物理标准模型中最后一个缺失的成分。进一步的进步将需要人工智能领域的革命性飞跃，因为物理问题的复杂性和物理数据集的规模都在继续增长。IAIFI的目标是开发和部署下一代人工智能技术，基于人工智能可以直接结合物理智能的变革性想法。IAIFI的研究人员将使用这些新的人工智能技术来解决物理学中一些最具挑战性的问题，从物质结构的精确计算，到对合并黑洞的引力波检测，再到从噪声数据中提取新的物理定律。IAIFI的研究人员还将把这些技术转移到更广泛的人工智能社区，因为值得信赖的人工智能对于物理发现和人工智能在社会中的其他应用一样重要。为了培养人类的智力，IAIFI将在物理学和人工智能的交叉点上促进培训、教育和拓展。通过这种方式，IAIFI将推进物理知识-从自然的最小构件到宇宙中最大的结构-并激励人工智能研究创新。IAIFI将通过开发结合基础物理学的基本原理和最佳实践的新型“从头开始人工智能”方法，促进物理学发现和基础人工智能的发展。从头开始人工智能将使棘手的理论物理计算成为可能，预测复杂的紧急现象，即使潜在的物理规律已经被很好地理解，但在计算上解决这些现象是令人望而生畏的。它还将改变许多实验物理应用，其中从头原理将用于设计更容易使用易于理解的校准数据样本进行验证的人工智能方法，从而更好地量化不确定性。虽然每个受物理学使用启发的目标都会提出自己的问题，但IAIFI的重点将是寻找共同的解决方案，因为这些问题涉及类似的先验知识，基于相同的基本从头计算原理，并面临共同的实验和理论挑战。在广泛的前沿物理研究中开发和部署人工智能方法，包括人工智能解决方案的验证和可解释性，在其他人工智能应用领域也面临着同样的挑战。因此，通过发展从头算人工智能，IAIFI将加快物理发现的步伐，延伸人工智能研究的前沿，并为广泛采用开辟新的途径。IAIFI将使剑桥和波士顿周边地区成为旨在推动物理和人工智能以及连接工业和科学合作伙伴关系的合作努力的连接点。IAIFI任务的一部分将是通过各种劳动力发展、数字学习、外联、扩大参与和知识转移计划来传播关于物理、人工智能及其交叉的知识(和热情)。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。

The Institute for Artificial Intelligence and Fundamental Interactions (IAIFI) will enable physics discoveries and advance foundational artificial intelligence (AI) through the development of novel AI approaches that incorporate first principles from fundamental physics. AI is transforming many aspects of society, including the ways that scientists are pursuing groundbreaking discoveries. For many years, physicists have been at the forefront of applying AI methods to investigate fundamental questions about the Universe. As an example, AI played a key role in the discovery and study of the Higgs boson, the last missing ingredient in the Standard Model of particle physics. Further progress will require a revolutionary leap in AI, as both the complexity of physics problems and the size of physics datasets continue to grow. The goal of the IAIFI is to develop and deploy the next generation of AI technologies, based on the transformative idea that artificial intelligence can directly incorporate physics intelligence. IAIFI researchers will use these new AI technologies to tackle some of the most challenging problems in physics, from precision calculations of the structure of matter, to gravitational wave detection of merging black holes, to the extraction of new physical laws from noisy data. IAIFI researchers will also transfer these technologies to the broader AI community, since trustworthy AI is as important for physics discovery as it is for other applications of AI in society. To cultivate human intelligence, the IAIFI will promote training, education, and outreach at the intersection of physics and AI. In this way, the IAIFI will advance physics knowledge – from the smallest building blocks of nature to the largest structures in the Universe – and galvanize AI research innovation.The IAIFI will enable physics discoveries and advance foundational AI through the development of novel “Ab initio AI” approaches that incorporate first principles and best practices from fundamental physics. Ab initio AI will make intractable theoretical physics calculations feasible, predicting complex emergent phenomena that are computationally daunting to tackle even though the underlying physical laws are well understood. It will also transform many experimental physics applications, where ab initio principles will be used to design AI methods that are more easily verifiable using well-understood calibration data samples, leading to better quantification of uncertainties. While each physics use-inspired goal will present its own issues, the IAIFI’s focus will be on finding shared solutions, since these problems involve similar prior knowledge, are based on the same underlying ab initio principles, and face common experimental and theoretical challenges. The same challenges that arise in the development and deployment of AI methods across a broad spectrum of frontier physics research, including verification and interpretability of AI solutions, are also faced in other AI application domains. Therefore, by developing ab initio AI, the IAIFI will accelerate the pace of physics discovery, extend the frontiers of AI research, and develop new pathways for broad adoption. The IAIFI will make Cambridge and the surrounding Boston area a nexus point for collaborative efforts aimed at advancing both physics and AI and at connecting to industry and science partnerships. Part of the IAIFI mission will be to disseminate knowledge about (and enthusiasm for) physics, AI, and their intersection through various workforce development, digital learning, outreach, broadening participation, and knowledge transfer 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.