The National Science Foundation will be the financing of Sunset for an artificial intelligence institute of $ 20 million designed to improve weather forecasts, a decision that could break a pipeline of scientists to receive training while hampering the country’s ability to assess the impacts of hurricanes and other weather disasters.
Amy McGovern, director of the Institute of Research on AI of AI of Confidence in the weather, the climate and coastal oceanography (AI2ES), said that the National Science Foundation (NSF) informed the Institute last month that it would not renew its subsidy over five years.
“It destroys him. There is no other good way to say it, “said McGovern, a meteorology and computer science professor at the University of Oklahoma.
McGovern said the Institute could close next year if he could not find private funding.
AI2ES is a collaboration between several universities to integrate AI into weather forecasts and assess its reliability.
The decision not to renew the financing of subsidies for AI2ES comes as the Trump administration is invested in AI and accelerates the construction of the data center. The administration’s own AI plan calls on the NSF to develop programs to assess AI systems and to create professional training programs in AI and more AI laboratories specializing in a range of scientific fields.
The administration in July announced a radical plan to promote “world domination” in artificial intelligence, prioritization of innovation and adoption – which are both at the Center des AI2.
“It’s dissonant,” said Alan Gerard, former director of the National Seved Storms Laboratory of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which follows the new forecast technology, said cups.
The White House did not respond to a request for comments.
The Institute was launched in 2020, under the previous Trump Administration, as one of the AI institutes of NSF. He has received around $ 20 million in total funding in the past five years. Michael England, an NSF spokesperson, said the agency had applauded AI institutes for their revolutionary work.
“The National Foundation of American Sciences remains fully determined to advance research on artificial intelligence within the framework of the National Program of Research Institutes on AI, a key element of the administration strategy to strengthen American leadership in the transformer AI,” said England in an email, adding that “the additional actions of the reward remain possible, subject to credits”.
England added: “NSF’s decision not to renew this price followed the rigorous NSF examination process and the decision was based on these merits and the needs of the mission and the priorities of the NSF.”
NSF and its partner organizations have funded a network of 29 AI institutes. AI2ES was one of the five institutes for renewal this year via NSF. Three of the institutes have been renewed and the fourth remains unanswered, said McGovern.
The Trump administration proposed a budgetary decrease of 55% for the NSF, but the Congress has not yet adopted a budget. The credits of the Senate and the Chamber separated from the Trump administration and proposed smaller cuts in scientific agencies like the NSF.
“I really thought that because we were an AI institute, we will be ok because it was part of the president’s priority,” said McGovern.
The Trump Administration AI plan has recommended that NSF and other agencies to develop labor programs to explain students from kindergarten to 12th year to AI professions and create industry training programs to create AI jobs and strengthen AI of the country’s workforce.
“They want a stronger AI workforce, RIGHT? What we were doing a huge amount of, ”said McGovern.
She said that the Institute has financed around 70 roles each year in several universities and that the private companies of AI had “torn off our people on the left and right” because the center had built a pipeline of talent. Among its other success measures: scientists from the Institute had published more than 130 university articles and developed AI tools used by governments today.
The center has helped create an AI tool to predict the type of meteorological events that can knock out sea turtles near the port of Corpus Christie in Texas, leaving vulnerable animals to be crushed by ships.
He helped build an application that allows forecastists to “see” inside hurricanes even when satellites in polar orbit with microwave sensors capable of penetrating the clouds are not above the storm. To get around this, the application uses geostationary satellite data which is not designed to penetrate the clouds, then simulates the internal structures of a hurricane.
The Center also sought how forecastists evaluate the reliability of private AI tools, such as those of development by Google and other companies.
“We have social science specialists who plunge at work with our real end users to understand why they trust AI and why they don’t trust AI and what they have to do to improve AI,” said McGovern.
If the center is closed, Gerard said he would not harm current weather forecasts, but could thwart innovation and disadvantage the country.
“Many other countries are investing in meteorological research linked to AI, such as China. This makes us late on many other countries in an area that is very promising to improve weather forecasts,” said Gerard.
