Princeton Laboratory for Artificial Intelligence to stretch the horizons of AI research for faculty and researchers

Written by
Yvonne Liu for the Office of the Dean of the Faculty
Oct. 8, 2024

The Princeton Laboratory for Artificial Intelligence (AI Lab) will launch this fall to support AI research and incorporate interdisciplinary research from across the natural sciences, engineering, social sciences and humanities into AI technology initiatives. 

Tom Griffiths, Princeton’s Henry R. Luce Professor of Information Technology, Consciousness, and Culture (jointly appointed in the departments of Psychology and Computer Science), has been named inaugural director of the AI Lab, with Olga Russakovsky, associate professor of computer science, as associate director. Together they will lead 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.

Griffiths described the vision behind the new effort: “It is an exciting time to be working in AI, with new developments emerging on a daily basis. The AI Lab helps us translate those new developments into impactful new research projects that focus on the ways that AI can enable and accelerate research across the campus.”

The AI Lab currently supports three research initiatives. Princeton Language and Intelligence focuses on exploring large AI models, AI for Accelerating Invention (AI^2) pursues innovative applications of AI in science and engineering, and Natural and Artificial Minds (NAM) explores the interrelationship between AI systems and human minds. These research initiatives are each 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. 

To further support research initiatives in the future, the AI Lab is seeking to secure additional funding from different sources, Griffiths said. 

In addition to these large research initiatives the AI Lab will provide seed funding to support faculty initiating research, with the aim of creating and enabling a community of researchers involving faculty across multiple units on campus. The deadline for proposals for seed funding is Oct. 31. 

The AI Lab’s shared infrastructure will include staff to support administration (events, grants, outreach, communications, industry engagement), research (a new AI Postdoctoral Fellows program), and technology (research software engineers and data scientists). Additionally, the AI Lab is scaling up capacity to support other activities on campus, including workshops, a distinguished lecture series, and gatherings to discuss research ideas at various stages of the pipeline and help develop them into larger projects.

“The AI Lab brings together the interdisciplinary AI community on campus. It's a unique opportunity to propel AI research forward through intermixing ideas between engineering, sciences, and humanities,” said Russakovsky.

The AI Lab will host an Open House celebrating its launch from 4 to 5 p.m., Oct. 24, at 41 William Street, second floor. To learn about AI Lab opportunities as they develop, as well as AI-related events on campus, subscribe to the AI Lab’s mailing list