August 18 -- OSTP and NSF extend comment deadline to October 1, 2021.
https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2021/08/18/2021-17737/request-for-information-rfi-on-an-implementation-plan-for-a-national-artificial-intelligence
July 23 -- The Office of Science and Technology Policy and the National Science Foundation are issuing this Request for Information (RFI) to inform the work of the National Artificial Intelligence Research Resource (NAIRR) Task Force (“Task Force”). The Task Force has been directed by Congress to develop an implementation roadmap for a shared research infrastructure that would provide Artificial Intelligence (AI) researchers and students across scientific disciplines with access to computational resources, high-quality data, educational tools, and user support. Responses and comments must be received, no later than 11:59 p.m., EDT on September 1, 2021.
National AI Initiative:
https://www.ai.gov/
NAIRR Task Force:
https://www.ai.gov/nairrtf/
RFI:
https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2021/07/23/2021-15660/request-for-information-rfi-on-an-implementation-plan-for-a-national-artificial-intelligence
Congress directed the National Science Foundation (NSF), in coordination with the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), to establish the NAIRR Task Force in the William M. (Mac) Thornberry National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021, Public Law 116-283 § 5106. The mandate of the Task Force is to investigate the feasibility and advisability of establishing and sustaining a NAIRR and propose a roadmap detailing how such a resource should be established and sustained.
The NAIRR is envisioned as a shared computing and data infrastructure that would provide AI researchers and students across scientific fields with access to a holistic advanced computing ecosystem. This would include secure, privacy-preserving frameworks; high-quality, representative datasets; and appropriate educational tools and user support mechanisms. The goal for such a national resource is to democratize access to the cyberinfrastructure that fuels AI research and development, enabling all of America's diverse AI researchers to fully participate in exploring innovative ideas for advancing AI, including communities, institutions, and regions that have been traditionally underserved—especially with regard to AI research and related education opportunities.
Composed of members from government, academia, and the private sector, the NAIRR Task Force is required to submit an interim report to Congress and the President by May 2022, with a final report to be issued in November 2022. (Meeting #1 of the Task Force: July 28, 2021, from 1:00-5:00PM EDT
https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2021/06/24/2021-13332/national-artificial-intelligence-research-resource-task-force-notice-of-meeting)
As outlined in § 5106(b) of Public Law 116-283, the implementation roadmap developed by the Task Force should include the following:
A. Goals for establishment and sustainment of a NAIRR and metrics for success;
B. A plan for ownership and administration of the NAIRR, including:
i. An appropriate agency or organization responsible for the implementation, deployment and administration of the NAIRR; and
ii. A governance structure for the NAIRR, including oversight and decision-making authorities;
C. A model for governance and oversight to establish strategic direction, make programmatic decisions, and manage the allocation of resources;
D. Capabilities required to create and maintain a shared computing infrastructure to facilitate access to advanced computing resources for researchers across the country, including provision of curated data sets, compute resources, educational tools and services, a user-interface portal, secure access control, resident expertise, and scalability of such infrastructure;
E. An assessment of, and recommended solutions to, barriers to the dissemination and use of high-quality government data sets as part of the NAIRR;
F. An assessment of security requirements associated with the NAIRR and its management of access controls;
G. An assessment of privacy and civil rights and civil liberties requirements associated with the NAIRR and its research;
H. A plan for sustaining the NAIRR, including through Federal funding and partnerships with the private sector; and
I. Parameters for the establishment and sustainment of the NAIRR, including agency roles and responsibilities.
The RFI for the NAIRR implementation plan seeks input from a broad array of stakeholders on the topics set forth below. Comments from the public will be used to inform the Task Force's consideration of options and development of an implementation roadmap.
1. What options should the Task Force consider for any of roadmap elements A through I above, and why? [Please take care to annotate your responses to this question by indicating the letter(s) of the item (A through I in the list above) for which you are identifying options.]
2. Which capabilities and services (see, for example, item D above) provided through the NAIRR should be prioritized?
3. How can the NAIRR and its components reinforce principles of ethical and responsible research and development of AI, such as those concerning issues of racial and gender equity, fairness, bias, civil rights, transparency, and accountability?
4. What building blocks already exist for the NAIRR, in terms of government, academic, or private-sector activities, resources, and services?
5. What role should public-private partnerships play in the NAIRR? What exemplars could be used as a model?
6. Where do you see limitations in the ability of the NAIRR to democratize access to AI R&D? And how could these limitations be overcome?
