The MIT-led Institute for Artificial Intelligence and Fundamental Interactions (IAIFI) has received renewed support from the National Science Foundation (NSF) for an additional five years, increasing annual funding from $4 million to $4.98 million. The renewal marks a new phase for IAIFI, which has spent its first five years building a research model and an interdisciplinary community around a central premise: that AI can open new ways of doing physics, while physics can help mold better AI systems.
作为国家人工智能研究所计划, IAIFI 于 2020 年启动，汇集了来自 MIT, 以及哈佛大学, 东北, 塔夫茨, 和波士顿大学的研究人员。它的工作表明，机器学习可以加速物理学的发现,，而物理学的见解可以使人工智能系统更有原则性和可解释性。
Launched in 2020 as part of the National Artificial Intelligence Research Institutes program, IAIFI brings together researchers from MIT, along with Harvard, Northeastern, Tufts, and Boston universities. Its work has shown that machine learning can accelerate discovery in physics, while insights from physics can make AI systems more principled and interpretable.
“从一开始, IAIFI 就围绕一条双向街道建立: AI 实现更好的物理, 物理实现更好的 AI,” 杰西·塞勒, IAIFI 主任兼麻省理工学院物理学教授 Jesse Thaler,” 说道。 “过去五年来，我们已经看到这种良性循环在物理和人工智能的多个领域中发挥作用。该交易所不仅产生了新成果,，而且产生了真正的科学研究新方法。”
“From the beginning, IAIFI has been built around a two-way street: AI enabling better physics, and physics enabling better AI,” says Jesse Thaler, IAIFI的 director and a professor of physics at MIT. “We have seen this virtuous cycle play out across multiple areas of physics and AI over the past five years. The exchange is producing not just new results, but genuinely new ways of doing science.”
IAIFI的 的研究涵盖粒子物理学, 核物理学, 天体物理学, 和基础 AI,，这些领域的合作取得了许多进展。
IAIFI的 research spans particle physics, nuclear physics, astrophysics, and foundational AI, with many advances emerging from collaborations across those areas.
在粒子物理学, IAIFI 研究人员开发了人工智能技术，可以实时处理来自大型强子对撞机的巨大数据速率,，帮助将大量碰撞数据转化为可操作的物理学。在核物理, IAIFI 研究人员正在使用基于人工智能的生成方法来模拟晶格量子色动力学, 中夸克和胶子的相互作用，从而创建从第一原理研究物质结构的新方法。在天体物理学领域，, 机器学习被用来发现新的宇宙现象并提高 MIT 领导的 LIGO 引力波实验的灵敏度。
In particle physics, IAIFI researchers have developed AI techniques to handle the immense data rates from the Large Hadron Collider in real-time, helping turn a firehose of collision data into actionable physics. In nuclear physics, IAIFI researchers are using AI-based generative methods to model the interactions of quarks and gluons in lattice quantum chromodynamics, creating new ways to study the structure of matter from first principles. In astrophysics, machine learning is being used to uncover new cosmic phenomena and improve the sensitivity of the MIT-led LIGO gravitational-wave experiment.
与此同时，, 物理学思想正在为新人工智能方法的开发提供信息。 IAIFI 研究人员正在开发学习算法和新模型架构，将物理知识和最佳实践— 嵌入其中，包括对称性, 几何结构, 准确性保证, 和统计方法— 直接嵌入到神经网络, 中，从而生成更可靠, 可解释, 和数据效率更高的系统。
At the same time, ideas from physics are informing the development of new AI methods. IAIFI researchers are developing learning algorithms and new model architectures that embed physics knowledge and best practices — including symmetries, geometric structures, exactness guarantees, and statistical methodologies — directly into neural networks, producing systems that are more reliable, interpretable, and data-efficient.
“AI 已经开始改变物理学家解决该领域一些 最具挑战性问题,” 的方式,” IAIFI 临时主任、麻省理工学院物理学教授 Mike Williams, 说。 “更重要的是,它开始扩大我们可以实际解决的问题的前沿,使得我们有可能追求曾经完全超出我们能力范围的问题。”
“AI has begun to transform how physicists tackle some of the field的 most challenging problems,” says Mike Williams, interim director of IAIFI and a professor of physics at MIT. “More importantly, it is starting to expand the frontier of what problems we can realistically address, making it possible to pursue questions that were once completely beyond our reach.”
IAIFI 的一个显着特征是对人才的投资。 IAIFI 博士后研究员计划支持早期职业科学家在物理学和 AI, 交叉领域进行研究，为每位研究员与两个领域的导师配对，并促进跨机构合作。
A defining feature of IAIFI is its investment in people. The IAIFI Postdoctoral Fellows program supports early-career scientists pursuing research at the intersection of physics and AI, pairing each fellow with mentors in both domains and fostering collaboration across institutions.
迄今为止，已有八名研究员完成了该计划。其中 3 人已获得教职; 其他人在领先的人工智能公司担任研究职务或加入初创公司, 反映了 IAIFI 培养的技能转化的广泛程度。
Eight fellows have completed the program to date. Three have secured faculty positions; others have taken research roles at leading AI companies or joined startups, reflecting how broadly the skills cultivated at IAIFI translate.
“IAIFI 奖学金展示了当早期职业科学家获得跨越传统界限工作的自由和支持时会发生什么,” 菲拉·沙纳汉, IAIFI 麻省理工学院的临时副主任和物理学教授菲拉·沙纳汉 (Phiala Shanahan) 说。 “我们的研究员’不仅仅是分别为物理学或人工智能做出贡献—他们正在帮助塑造一个不断发展的领域。”
“The IAIFI Fellowship shows what can happen when early-career scientists are given the freedom and support to work across traditional boundaries,” says Phiala Shanahan, IAIFI的 interim deputy director and a professor of physics at MIT. “Our fellows aren’t just contributing to physics or to AI separately — they are helping shape a growing field at the intersection.”
IAIFI的年度博士暑期学校已成为不断壮大的“centaur 科学家” 社区的焦点，这些科学家在物理和人工智能方面都有专业知识。对于 2026 年版,，该计划收到了近 600 份申请，涉及约 100 个现场席位,，预计还有约 300 名额外参与者通过虚拟方式加入。以前的参与者向他们的同行强烈推荐学校结合了讲座,实践教程,编码冲刺,和社交活动。
IAIFI的 annual PhD Summer School has become a focal point for the growing community of “centaur scientists” with expertise in both physics and AI. For the 2026 edition, the program received nearly 600 applications for roughly 100 in-person spots, with about 300 additional participants expected to join virtually. Previous participants have strongly recommended the school to their peers for its combination of lectures, hands-on tutorials, coding sprints, and networking events.
作为国家人工智能研究所计划的成员, IAIFI 是全国范围内推动人工智能驱动的发现和创新的努力的一部分。
As a member of the National Artificial Intelligence Research Institutes program, IAIFI is part of a nationwide effort to advance AI-driven discovery and innovation.
“NSF AI 研究所之间的联系与它们内部的工作一样有价值，并且持续增长,” Marisa LaFleur, IAIFI的 董事总经理表示。 “我们’正在共享管理策略和培训资源,社区建设,和协作，使整个网络变得更强。”
“The connections among the NSF AI Institutes have been as valuable as the work within them and continue to grow,” says Marisa LaFleur, IAIFI的 managing director. “We’re sharing management strategies and resources for training, community building, and collaboration that make the whole network stronger.”
对于 IAIFI, 来说，新的资金是一个机会，可以利用物理推理, 物理挑战, 和物理工具，更深入地研究研究所所说的 “ AI” — 物理问题，不仅是为了应用 AI,，而且是为了理解和改进它。该议程, 以及不断壮大的受过跨学科, 培训的研究人员群体是推动研究所 进入下一阶段的动力。
For IAIFI, the renewed funding is an opportunity to push deeper into what the institute calls the “physics of AI” — using physical reasoning, physical challenges, and physical tools not just to apply AI, but to understand and improve it. That agenda, along with a growing community of researchers trained to work across disciplines, is what drives the institute的 next phase.
“IAFI 第一阶段建立了模型: 跨学科研究, 早期职业人才, 和一个充满活力的社区, 围绕人工智能和物理使彼此变得更强的理念组织,” Thaler 说。 “现在我们拥有基础—和半人马科学家—的创业精神，可以将该模型推向新的领域并提高我们的雄心。”
“The first phase of IAIFI established the model: interdisciplinary research, early-career talent, and a dynamic community, organized around the idea that AI and physics make each other stronger,” Thaler says. “Now we have the foundation — and the entrepreneurial spirit of our centaur scientists — to push that model into new territory and raise our ambitions.”