Two new National Artificial Intelligence Research Institutes for astronomical sciences are being established and are to be funded by the National Science Foundation and the Simons Foundation.
The NSF-Simons AI Institute for Cosmic Origins seeks to accelerate historically time-consuming processes in astronomical research like data analysis or simulations, the while the NSF-Simons AI Institute for the Sky seeks to tackle complex problems in astrophysics and astronomy, the NSF said Wednesday.
NSF-Simons CosmicAI will be overseen by a team led by the University of Texas at Austin while NSF-Simons SkAI will be overseen by a team led by Northwestern University.
The institutes will each receive $20 million in total over five years. The NSF will contribute $10 million while the Simons Foundation will contribute the other $10 million.
NSF Director Sethuraman Panchanathan commented on the benefits AI will bring to astronomical sciences, saying, “With reliable and trustworthy AI in their toolbox, everyone from students to senior researchers will have exciting new ways to gain valuable insights leading to amazing discoveries that might otherwise remain hidden in the data.”
For his part, Simons Foundation President David Spergel said, “Astronomy has incredibly rich and open data sets and is poised for more deep and profound inquiry.”
“AI offers novel tools that can use this data both to produce transformative results and to develop tools that can have impact in other fields,” Spergel added.