The U.S. National Science Foundation, in collaboration with 10 federal agencies and 25 private sector, nonprofit, and philanthropic organizations, has launched the National Artificial Intelligence Research Resource (NAIRR) pilot.

The NAIRR pilot will provide U.S.-based researchers and educators with access to advanced computing, datasets, models, software, training, and user support. It aims to facilitate innovative AI research and inform the design of the complete NAIRR ecosystem.

The collaboration includes academia, industry, nonprofit, and government. This cross-sector partnership aims to facilitate the development of commercially viable AI applications and solutions, thereby fostering economic growth.

Government partners in this project include:

• U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF)
• Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)
• National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
• National Institutes of Health (NIH)
• National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)
• National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
• U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)
• U.S. Department of Defense (DOD)
• U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)
• U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)
• U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO)

Private sector, non-profit, and philanthropy partners include:

• AI2: Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence
• Amazon Web Services (AWS)
• Anthropic
• AMD
• Cerebras
• Databricks
• Datavant
• EleutherAI
• Google
• Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE)
• Hugging Face
• IBM
• Intel
• Meta
• Microsoft
• MLCommons
• Nvidia
• Omidyar Network
• OpenAI
• OpenMined
• Palantir
• Regenstrief Institute
• SambaNova Systems
• Vocareum
• Weights & Biases

The pilot will focus on AI research in healthcare, environmental and infrastructure sustainability, and providing infrastructure support for AI education and training. It comprises four focus areas: NAIRR Open, NAIRR Secure, NAIRR Software, and NAIRR Classroom, each dedicated to different aspects of AI research and education.

The launch of the NAIRR pilot fulfills a directive from Executive Order 14110, signed by President Biden in October 2023, instructing the NSF to initiate a pilot program within 90 days. The project aims to democratize access to AI innovation and advance the development of trustworthy AI.