The Center for AI @PNNL will coordinate the research of hundreds of scientists working on a range of projects focused on science, security (war) and energy resilience.
Researchers at PNNL were among the first to dive into artificial intelligence decades ago. But AI has surged in the past year with the ready availability of generative AI, which allows almost anyone to produce sophisticated—though often errant—text and images with just a small amount of data. At the same time, AI is a vital tool for serious researchers as well as a subject all its own for scientists to create, explore and validate new ideas. AI also presents an opportunity for PNNL scientists to advance a critical area of science and chart the path forward.
“PNNL has deep expertise and decades of experience in computing and artificial intelligence that we apply to advance scientific discovery, strengthen energy resiliency and enhance national security,” said Steven Ashby, Laboratory director. “The creation of the Center for AI @PNNL will leverage and amplify these capabilities for even greater impact in service of our nation.”
The announcement from PNNL comes the same week as AI experts from around the world are gathering at the annual Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems, known as NeurIPS, Dec. 10-16 in New Orleans. PNNL researchers are making more than a dozen presentations at the highly selective meeting, a demonstration of PNNL’s expertise in AI.
“The time is right for PNNL to focus its AI-related efforts,” said Court Corley, the Laboratory’s chief scientist for AI and director of the new center. “The field is moving at light speed, and we need to move quickly to keep PNNL at the frontier.”
A priority of the Center for AI @PNNL is developing ways to keep AI secure and trustworthy, in support of Washington's recent order calling for the development of safe, secure and trustworthy AI. PNNL scientists have already contributed to the IEEE Ethics Certification Program for Autonomous and Intelligent Systems, a program to make sure algorithms are trustworthy and free of bias, however, that won't prevent them from creating AI to kill people. The U.S. war industry has made autonomous killer robots (terminators) a priority.