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This program has been archived.


NSF Program on Fairness in Artificial Intelligence in Collaboration with Amazon  (FAI)


Notice for Fairness in Artificial Intelligence in Collaboration with Amazon

The award budgets shown through the “What Has Been Funded” link below include only the NSF-funded portion for those projects.  Additional funding for those projects was provided by Amazon, as detailed in the program solicitation.


CONTACTS
Name Email Phone Room
Steven  . Breckler sbreckle@nsf.gov (703) 292-7369   
Todd  Leen tleen@nsf.gov (703) 292-8930   
Sylvia  Spengler sspengle@nsf.gov (703) 292-8930   


PROGRAM GUIDELINES

Solicitation  21-585

Important Information for Proposers

A revised version of the NSF Proposal & Award Policies & Procedures Guide (PAPPG) (NSF 22-1), is effective for proposals submitted, or due, on or after October 4, 2021. Please be advised that, depending on the specified due date, the guidelines contained in NSF 22-1 may apply to proposals submitted in response to this funding opportunity.


DUE DATES

Archived


SYNOPSIS

NSF has long supported transformative research in artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML). The resulting innovations offer new levels of economic opportunity and growth, safety and security, and health and wellness, intended to be shared across all segments of society. Broad societal acceptance of large-scale deployments of AI systems rely critically on their trustworthiness which, in turn, depends on the ability to assess and demonstrate the fairness (including broad accessibility and utility), transparency, explainability, impartiality, inclusivity, and accountability of such systems. For example, the behavior of algorithms for face recognition, speech, and language, especially when integrated into decision support systems applied across different segments of society, would benefit from new foundational research in fairness of AI systems.

NSF and Amazon are partnering to jointly support computational research focused on fairness in AI, with the goal of contributing to trustworthy AI systems that are readily accepted and deployed to tackle grand challenges facing society. Specific topics of interest include, but are not limited to transparency, explainability, accountability, inclusivity, potential adverse biases (including social biases) and effects, mitigation strategies, algorithmic advances, fairness objectives, validation of fairness, participatory design, and advances in broad accessibility and utility. Funded projects will enable broadened acceptance of AI systems, helping the U.S. to further capitalize on the potential of AI technologies. Although Amazon provides partial funding for this program, it will not play a role in the selection of proposals for award.

Advancing AI is a highly interdisciplinary endeavor drawing on fields such as computer science, information science, engineering, statistics, mathematics, cognitive science, psychology, sociology, decision science, and economics. Considerations of practice, often derived from the social, behavioral, and economic sciences, can inform new directions for computational science to better realize the benefits of algorithmic and data fairness.  As such, NSF and Amazon expect these varied perspectives to be critical for the study of fairness in AI. NSF's ability to bring together multiple scientific disciplines uniquely positions the agency in this collaboration, while building AI that is fair and unbiased is an important aspect of Amazon's AI initiatives. This program supports the conduct of fundamental computer science research into theories, techniques, and methodologies that go well beyond today's capabilities and are motivated by challenges and requirements in real systems.

NSF’s mission calls for the broadening of opportunities and expanding participation of groups, institutions, and geographic regions that are underrepresented in STEM disciplines, which is essential to the health and vitality of science and engineering. Consistent with this principle of diversity and particularly suitable for the thrust of this program, NSF and Amazon encourage proposals (either independently or in multi-institution collaborations) from investigators at institutions that serve groups historically underrepresented in STEM disciplines.


RELATED URLS


What Has Been Funded (Recent Awards Made Through This Program, with Abstracts)

Map of Recent Awards Made Through This Program