“The U.S. National Science Foundation announced a partnership with NVIDIA to develop a set of artificial intelligence models that will transform the ability of America's scientists to leverage AI, advancing scientific discovery and ensuring U.S. leadership in AI-powered research and innovation. NSF will contribute $75 million, with NVIDIA providing an additional $77 million, to support the Open Multimodal AI Infrastructure to Accelerate Science (OMAI) project, led by the Allen Institute for AI (Ai2). The collaboration will create a fully open suite of advanced AI models specifically designed to support the U.S. scientific community.
“This public-private investment advances priorities set forth in the White House AI Action Plan to accelerate AI-enabled science and ensure the United States is producing the leading open models that enhance America's global AI dominance.
“'Bringing AI into scientific research has been a game changer,' said Brian Stone, performing the duties of the NSF director. 'NSF is proud to partner with NVIDIA to equip America's scientists with the tools to accelerate breakthroughs. These investments are not just about enabling innovation; they are about securing U.S. global leadership in science and technology and tackling challenges once thought impossible.'”
The story later goes on to say, “Initial applications of Ai2's work will include AI breakthroughs to accelerate the discovery of new materials, improve protein function prediction for biomedical advancements and address core weaknesses in today's large language models.
“The project will provide a path forward to a future paradigm of AI-accelerated scientific discovery, supporting reliable and rigorous science and building an innovation ecosystem that benefits every American.”
While I was at the Black Hat Conference last week in Las Vegas, there were several stories and demonstrations of how vulnerable large language models are to various types of cyber attacks. You can see some of those examples in this piece: “Black Hat USA 2025 featured over 100 sessions on LLM and agentic AI exploits, AI provider vulnerabilities, and AI supply chain risks. Attendees saw high-profile demos — including a live hijacking of smart homes via Google Gemini — and received critical disclosures on zero-day vulnerabilities in CyberArk Conjur and HashiCorp Vault.”
The new White House AI Action Plan contains many components, but perhaps the most important may be the many partnership opportunities with the private sector to allow the U.S. to win in the global race surrounding AI. Here's an excerpt from the action plan's introduction:
“Winning the AI race will usher in a new golden age of human flourishing, economic competitiveness, and national security for the American people. AI will enable Americans to discover new materials, synthesize new chemicals, manufacture new drugs, and develop new methods to harness energy—an industrial revolution. It will enable radically new forms of education, media, and communication—an information revolution. And it will enable altogether new intellectual achievements: unraveling ancient scrolls once thought unreadable, making breakthroughs in scientific and mathematical theory, and creating new kinds of digital and physical art—a renaissance.
“An industrial revolution, an information revolution, and a renaissance—all at once. This is the potential that AI presents. The opportunity that stands before us is both inspiring and humbling. And it is ours to seize, or to lose.”
NSF RESEARCH FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES
The National Science Foundation offers many funding opportunities for universities and others to engage in cutting-edge research. Some of those related opportunities can be found here.
One example that I would like to highlight is this NSF grant for Washington State University, which will support international research in cybersecurity for AI: “Washington State University researchers have received a three-year National Science Foundation grant that will train U.S. and Swedish students in cybersecurity research for artificial intelligence (AI) applications.
“The $450,000 grant from NSF’s International Research Experiences for Students program will support semester-long exchanges for WSU undergraduates to conduct cybersecurity research with a cohort at Sweden’s Linköping University (LiU). Separately funded by Sweden, the LiU student cohort will visit WSU in a subsequent semester. The program aims to foster international research, cultural exchange, and collaboration.”
FINAL THOUGHTS
This is slightly off topic, but while I was researching NSF activities related to state and local governments, AI and more, I found this webpage from 15 years ago archived on GovTech. The short piece announced a new partnership working on improving digital government nationwide by the NSF:
“The partnership, known as 'dg.o,' or DigitalGovernment.Org, brings together computer science researchers with federal, state and local agencies to improve the quality and scope of online government services.”
Sadly, the website no longer exists, but it is wonderful to see the partnerships continuing in new areas of technology and cybersecurity.
