The Princeton Laboratory for Artificial Intelligence (the “AI Lab” for short) supports and expands the scope of AI research at Princeton, adopting a new organizational model designed to accommodate the challenges of working in this fast-moving field. The AI Lab is focused on incubating ambitious AI-related research initiatives involving faculty members across the natural sciences, engineering, social sciences and humanities and providing a shared infrastructure for supporting AI research more broadly. The shared infrastructure includes:
- Staff to support administration (events, grants, outreach, communications, industry engagement), research (AI Postdoctoral Fellows), and technology (research software engineers and data scientists).
- Computational resources designed to address the specific needs of large-scale AI projects, including a cluster with 300 H100 GPUs.
- Funding to support faculty starting new AI-related research, targeting interdisciplinary efforts exploring the impact of AI on different fields.
- Events, including workshops and a distinguished lecture series.
- Informal and formal gatherings to discuss research ideas at various stages of the pipeline and help develop them into larger projects.
These efforts are guided by an executive committee with representatives from existing interdisciplinary centers and programs that make contact with AI and the leaders of current AI Lab research projects.
As AI research has been making rapid progress both in industry and academia, the goal of the AI Lab is to be able to make nimble investments in areas where that progress makes it possible to have a disproportionate impact. Rather than competing with industry, the focus is on using AI in areas that draw on Princeton’s strength in a wide range of academic disciplines. By expanding our capacity to deploy state-of-the-art AI technologies and taking new approaches to challenging problems we can support interdisciplinary research that leads to exciting new insights across the entire campus.
Frequently Asked Questions
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The AI Lab research initiatives focus on specific timely topics, aimed at creating and enabling a community of researchers involving multiple faculty across multiple units on campus who can make progress on those topics. These research initiatives are intended to be the academic equivalent of a start-up, either expanding into larger efforts, merging into existing units, becoming self-sustaining, or being replaced with other research initiatives as developments in AI offer new opportunities. Each AI Lab research initiative has a set of core problems that it tackles while developing a community and supporting a broader set of related projects.
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Princeton Language and Intelligence (PLI) was launched in 2023, and focuses on large-scale AI models (“foundation models”) such as large language models (Director: Sanjeev Arora, Associate Directors: Danqi Chen and Karthik Narasimhan). We have two new research initiatives launching in 2024: AI for Accelerating Invention (AI^2), which pursues innovative applications of AI in science and engineering (Co-Directors Ryan Adams and Mengdi Wang), and Natural and Artificial Minds (NAM), which explores the interrelationship between AI systems and human minds (Co-Directors Sarah-Jane Leslie and Tania Lombrozo). In addition, Princeton Precision Health (PPH) is an independent but closely associated initiative using AI and data science to transform human health (Director Olga Troyanskaya).
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Yes, we hope to support more AI Lab research initiatives as we secure funding to do so, and are actively pursuing different sources of funding.
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We will have both structured and informal opportunities to meet with the leadership of the AI Lab (including the Director, Tom Griffiths, and members of the Executive Committee) to develop ideas throughout the year. These opportunities are valuable not only for exploring ideas for future research initiatives, but also for discovering existing resources that can support your plans. A strong initiative proposal identifies not just core research problems but a related community on campus. The AI Lab seed grant program will include funds for supporting research efforts related to existing research initiatives, but will also support new efforts that fall outside the scope of those research initiatives. This is a good way to begin to demonstrate progress on research problems and to build collaborations that will support a future AI Lab research initiative. Writing grants related to your research idea can start building a community and complement other sources of funding, and the AI Lab will help support this kind of fundraising. Depending on scope, new research initiatives require the approval of the Academic Planning Group before launching.
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We are gradually scaling up our capacity to support other activities on campus. Once the AI Lab is up and running, we plan to support workshops in emerging areas that are beginning to make contact with AI and engage in other outreach activities. We hope to become a valued partner and resource for those engaging in AI related research.
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The AI Lab is located on the second floor of the Scribner building at 41 William Street (home of Princeton University Press). AI Lab postdoctoral fellows, research software engineers, and administrative staff are housed here. We envision this space as a place to meet and collaborate.
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The Princeton Laboratory for Artificial Intelligence (AI Lab) is a campus unit focused on expanding and supporting AI research at Princeton. The NJ AI Hub is a joint initiative being established by Princeton University, the State of New Jersey, and corporate and higher-ed partners to catalyze AI-driven research and development, seed and grow startups in the AI space, and help build the tech talent base across New Jersey.
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Please join our mailing list to receive announcements of opportunities as they develop, as well as to learn about AI-related events on campus. (If you have an AI-related event that you would like included on the AI at Princeton website events page, please submit this event request form.) If you have specific concerns or questions, reach out to [email protected].