National Science Foundation and Amazon Team up to Pursue Fairness in Artificial Intelligence

The National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering Division of Information and Intelligent Systems and the Directorate for Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences Division of Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences have partnered up with Amazon to commit up to $10 million each in research grants over the next three years that will focus on fairness in Artificial Intelligence (AI). As AI capabilities grow more refined, the economic, security and social welfare benefits it AI brings with it will also grow. But it is also important that these systems be trustworthy and demonstrate transparency, accountability and fairness in their operations.

“We are excited to announce this new collaboration with Amazon to fund research focused on fairness in AI,” said Jim Kurose, NSF’s head for Computer and Information Science and Engineering. “This program will support research related to the development and implementation of trustworthy AI systems that incorporate transparency, fairness, and accountability into the design from the beginning.”

The grants seek computational research focused on fairness in AI with specific topics of research including:

• Transparency;
• Explainability;
• Accountability;
• Potential adverse biases and effects;
• Mitigation strategies;
• Validation of fairness; and
• Considerations of inclusivity.

Due to the inherently interdisciplinary nature of AI, NSF and Amazon are looking for a wide range of perspectives in these projects, as well as projects that are able to bring together multiple perspectives. While Amazon will partially fund the projects, it will have no role is selecting proposals to be awarded funding. Looking ahead to the future, NSF and Amazon state that they plan to continue the program and seek further proposals in 2020 and 2021.

All applicants must submit a letter of intent by 5pm on May 10, followed by a full proposal no later than 5pm on June 25.

For further information and to submit an application, click here: https://nsf.gov/pubs/2019/nsf19571/nsf19571.htm?org=NSF