PNNL Establishes An AI Research Center

The Center for AI @PNNL was established by the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) to manage the research of hundreds of scientists engaged in a variety of science, security, and energy resilience-related projects.
Decades ago, PNNL researchers were among the first to explore artificial intelligence, according to the laboratory. But the availability of generative AI, which enables nearly anyone to create —though occasionally erroneous— text and images with just a tiny amount of data, has caused AI to soar in the last year. According to PNNL, artificial intelligence (AI) is both a tool and a field unto itself that allows scientists to generate, investigate, and validate novel concepts.
The director of the Laboratory, Steven Ashby, stated, “PNNL has deep expertise and decades of experience in computing and artificial intelligence that we apply to advance scientific discovery, strengthen energy resiliency, and enhance national security.” “By leveraging and amplifying these capabilities, the Center for AI at PNNL will have an even greater impact in service of our country.”
Creating methods to maintain AI’s security and reliability is a top objective for PNNL’s Center for AI, the organization stated. The IEEE Ethics Certification Program for Autonomous and Intelligent Systems, which verifies algorithms are reliable and impartial, was made possible in part by contributions from PNNL scientists.
Since PNNL is a DOE Office of Science laboratory, science-related problems are the main focus of AI. AI is being used by one group to identify which hurricanes are most likely to intensify quickly and without warning.
At PNNL, a large portion of AI research applications are centered on maintaining global security and energy resilience. While some researchers utilize machine learning to discover novel compound combinations that may power the next generation of lithium batteries, others employ artificial intelligence (AI) to try to improve the country’s electrical infrastructure. Protection against the proliferation of nuclear materials is another common application.
The AI capabilities of PNNL have most recently been employed to assist firefighters in predicting the course of wildfires.
The development of an AI-ready workforce, integrating AI into PNNL’s daily operations, figuring out how humans and AI programs can collaborate most effectively, and autonomous experimentation—where AI can guide robot activity in the lab, analyze data, plan out and even direct subsequent tasks—are some of the other topics that participants in the Center for AI at PNNL are interested in.