Readout of the Eighth National Artificial Intelligence Research Resource (NAIRR) Task Force Meeting
The NAIRR Task Force deliberated on an implementation roadmap, as well as a future governance structure and a plan to integrate resources. The Task Force also engaged with a panel of international experts to discuss lessons learned from other countries’ efforts to support computational and data resources for AI research, and to explore collaboration opportunities
On July 25, the members of the National Artificial Intelligence Research Resource (NAIRR) Task Force met in their eighth virtual, public meeting to develop an implementation plan and roadmap for a national cyberinfrastructure that would connect America’s researchers from all backgrounds and locations within the United States to the computational, data, and testbed resources that fuel artificial intelligence (AI) research and innovation. By creating an equitable infrastructure for cutting-edge AI that builds on-ramps for participation for a wide range of researchers and communities, the NAIRR could build AI capacity across the nation and support responsible AI research and development, thereby driving innovation and ensuring long-term U.S. competitiveness in this critical technology area.
The meeting was the first full Task Force convening since the release of the Task Force’s interim report to the President and Congress on May 25, 2022. At this meeting, the Task Force focused deliberations on developing plans for implementing the vision of the NAIRR as detailed in the interim report – moving from the “what” to the “how.”
Task Force co-chairs Dr. Lynne Parker, Deputy U.S. Chief Technology Officer and Director of the National AI Initiative Office at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, and Dr. Manish Parashar, Office Director for the Office of Advanced Cyberinfrastructure at the National Science Foundation, opened the meeting with a summary of the series of stakeholder engagements undertaken since the release of the interim report in May. These included a public listening session held on June 23, 2022 with 43 members of the public participating; a request for information that garnered 23 responses from civil society, academic, and private sector stakeholders; and a dialogue among interagency representatives from across the Federal government.
The Task Force discussed three central elements of an implementation plan for the NAIRR: a roadmap for starting up, funding, maintaining, and sustaining the NAIRR;ownership, administration, and responsible research controls; and computational resources, data resources, and technical integration of these resources. Task Force members raised the imperative of scoping the NAIRR budget and scale towards the ultimate goals of increasing U.S. competitiveness and growing both AI capacity and capability across the nation. The importance of developing criteria for the inclusion of resources, particularly datasets, in the NAIRR was also raised, as was the need to align the NAIRR with other relevant ongoing efforts, notably the privacy-preserving, sensitive data that will be made available to approved researchers as part of the development of the National Secure Data Service pilot that was authorized in the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022. The Task Force also continued a conversation on building a logic model for the NAIRR and began exploring questions of what legal and statutory authorities might be required to institutionalize the structure of the NAIRR as envisioned by the Task Force.
The Task Force was also joined by a distinguished panel of international representatives who shared perspectives on relevant initiatives in other countries that support AI research through the provision of computational and data resources. Representatives from Brazil, Canada, France, Japan, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), and the United Kingdom reflected on lessons learned from their efforts to support AI research and discussed opportunities for international collaboration through the NAIRR.
The Task Force members answered questions posed by the public attendees throughout the meeting, addressing feedback related to the process of standing up the NAIRR and funding for resource providers as well as the role for the NAIRR in educational initiatives.
The Task Force will hold its ninth public meeting on September 12, 2022. Details on how to participate in the meeting will soon be available at AI.gov/nairrtf, along with materials from this and prior meetings.
External Speakers at the July 25th Meeting:
Eliana Cardoso Emediato de Azambuja, Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation, Brazil
Alison Kennedy, Science and Technology Facilities Council, UK Research and Innovation, United Kingdom
Mark Leggott, Digital Research Alliance of Canada
Karine Perset, Division for Digital Economy Policy, OECD
Kazuyuki Takada, Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, Japan
Renaud Vedel, Ministry for the Digital Economy, France
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