On September 19th, the National Science Foundation (NSF) hosted investigators from all 25 NSF funded Artificial Intelligence (AI) Institutes for an interactive showcase on Capitol Hill. Senators Martin Heinrich (D-NM) and Mike Rounds (R-SD), co-chairs of the Senate Artificial Intelligence Caucus, joined NSF Director Sethuraman Panchanathan to welcome a packed room.
Investigators engaged with congressional staff, NSF colleagues, and other partners, and highlighted the groundbreaking research and technologies at their AI Institutes.
Four of the AI Institutes are co-funded by the Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences Directorate at NSF: Institute for Student-AI Teaming; AI Institute for Collaborative Assistance and Responsive Interaction for Networked Groups (AI-CARING); AI Institute for Artificial and Natural Intelligence. The AI Institute for Societal Decision Making (AI-SDM) is housed at Carnegie Mellon University with Dr. Aarti Singh and is co-led by social scientist Dr. Terri Adams Fuller, Howard University.
In a separate set of activities, many of the participating AI institutes made visits to their delegation offices while in Washington. Researchers communicated the importance of NSF funding for these institutes on a range of activities from education, to agriculture, to defense. The Coalition for National Science Funding (CNSF), of which FABBS executive director Juliane Baron is a co-chair, brought AI institute leadership to meet with key committee staff and leadership offices in both chambers. This was an important opportunity to bring attention to the role of NSF funding for fundamental research that leads to real world applications and societal impacts.
