NSF AI Institutes in the Physical Sciences

The institutes span physics, chemistry, materials and astronomy. They are using AI to explore the practically infinite variety of nature while developing new AI tools that can do useful scientific tasks with incredible speed, including:

• Accurately predicting the chemical properties of new molecules that could have valuable medical or industrial applications.
• Accelerating the discovery of new materials with properties that could enable new types of energy technologies, quantum technologies and others.
• Enhancing the quality of measurements and understanding yielded by enormous data sets from the Large Hadron Collider, NSF LIGO, NSF IceCube and other major physics experiments.
• Undertaking exceptionally complex problems in astrophysics and astronomy, such as determining the unknown properties of dark matter and dark energy.

The NSF AI Institute for Artificial Intelligence and Fundamental Interactions (NSF IAIFI) is using AI to investigate some of the most complex challenges in physics while simultaneously developing robust and reliable AI-based tools. The institute's focus areas span theoretical physics, experimental physics and astrophysics. The institute is part of the NSF National AI Research Institutes program.

The NSF AI-Materials Institute (NSF AI-MI) is accelerating the discovery of next-generation materials essential for energy production, quantum technologies and other national priorities. It is creating a cloud-based portal that integrates large language models with experimental data, simulations, images and scientific findings. The institute is part of the NSF National AI Research Institutes program.

The NSF Institute of Accelerated AI Algorithms for Data-Driven Discovery (NSF A3D3) targets fundamental problems in three fields of science: high-energy physics, multi-messenger astrophysics and neuroscience. Within these areas, the institute is developing and applying new AI-based solutions to analyze large datasets in real time, enhancing their discovery potential.

The NSF Institute for Research and Innovation in Software for High Energy Physics (NSF IRIS-HEP) is developing AI-based software to be used on the unprecedented amount of data expected from the High-Luminosity Large Hadron Collider project at CERN. That project will search for phenomena that are unexplained by the standard model of physics and will generate about ten times the amount of data created in the experiment that discovered the Higgs boson.

The NSF Molecule Maker Lab Institute (NSF MMLI) is enabling more efficient manufacturing and discovery of molecules with potentially useful properties and applications. The institute is creating new AI-based tools that can accelerate chemical synthesis planning and discover entirely new catalysts and molecules. The institute is part of the NSF National AI Research Institutes program.

The NSF-Simons AI Institute for Cosmic Origins (CosmicAI), funded by NSF and the Simons Foundation, is accelerating traditionally time-consuming aspects of astronomical research, such as processing and analyzing large amounts of data and creating and evaluating simulations of complex phenomena like the chemical processes within stars. The institute is part of the NSF National AI Research Institutes program.

The NSF-Simons AI Institute for the Sky (SkAI), funded by NSF and the Simons Foundation, focuses on complex problems in astrophysics and astronomy across a broad range of cosmic scales, from the physics of exotic objects like neutron stars and black holes to the formation of galaxies and the role that dark matter and dark energy play across the entire universe. The institute is part of the NSF National AI Research Institutes program.