On April 8, the 12 members of the National AI Research Resource Task Force met virtually in their sixth public meeting, continuing their efforts to develop a vision and implementation plan for a NAIRR — a national cyberinfrastructure that would democratize access to the resources and tools that fuel AI research and development (R&D). Expansion of access to the tools and infrastructure necessary to conduct AI R&D would broaden the range of researchers involved in AI, grow and diversify approaches to and applications of AI, and open opportunities to advance R&D in AI and across related scientific fields and disciplines, including in critical areas such as AI auditing, testing and evaluation, bias mitigation, security, and more.
Task Force co-chairs Dr. Lynne Parker, Director of the National AI Initiative Office within the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), and Dr. Manish Parashar, Office Director for the Office of Advanced Cyberinfrastructure at the National Science Foundation (NSF), led the Task Force in a discussion on a draft of its interim report that will be submitted to the President and Congress in May 2022. This report will provide the Task Force’s general vision for a NAIRR along with a preliminary set of findings and recommendations for the design of the NAIRR architecture, resources, capabilities, and uses.
Looking ahead, the Task Force members deliberated on the key additional questions to be answered in developing a final report, anticipated for release in December 2022, which will provide a more detailed roadmap and implementation plan for realizing the NAIRR vision. Discussion focused on the need to define the scale and unique value-add of the NAIRR, identify any gaps in the Task Force’s analysis to date, and understand the role of partnerships. The Task Force also discussed plans to solicit feedback from a range of external stakeholders, including the general public, on the interim report and on the development of a plan to implement the NAIRR vision. The Task Force agreed that this engagement will include a request for information and a public listening session, as well as interagency and international roundtables.