AI R&D Steals the Spotlight in NITRD’s FY 2022 Supplement

Earlier this month, the Networking and Information Technology Research and Development (NITRD) Program released its FY 2022 R&D supplement to the President’s budget request. Albeit released later than usual, the supplement reveals an increased commitment to advanced technologies R&D with a $7.8B total budget. 

New to the supplement is a breakdown of AI R&D funding across all of NITRD’s Program Component Areas (PCAs), as well as detailed information on funding among the National AI Research Institutes. The added information stems from the National Artificial Intelligence Initiative Office’s (NAIIO) obligation to submit budget and program information as it pertains to the National Artificial Intelligence Initiative Act (NAIIA) of 2020.

AI R&D FY 2022 funding totals $1.8B, an increase of $79M from FY 2021 enacted levels and $174M over FY 2020. Note that these totals reflect both dollars under the AI PCA as well as AI programs found among other NITRD PCAs. At DOD, however, investments under the AI PCA are not publicly available, yet DOD does report AI R&D investments among PCAs other than AI. Thus, the totals also reflect all nondefense investments and indirect defense investments in AI. The breakdown of FY 2022 AI R&D funding among agencies is below:

Figures in parentheses reflect change compared to FY 2021 enacted budgets, including supplemental FY 2021 funding

Notable programs and increases include additional funds at NSF to establish the AI research institutes as legislation named the NSF as lead agency for the organizations. Moreover, the $15M increase at NIST is to exclusively establish a new public-private partnership to accelerate trustworthy AI and expand AI research capacities at the agency’s laboratories.

Looking specifically at the AI PCA, $1.1B is requested in FY 2022, $153M over FY 2021 enacted levels and $306M over FY 2020. The AI PCA includes the R&D of “machine learning, computer vision, natural language processing/understanding, intelligent decision support systems, and autonomous systems, as well as the novel application of these techniques to various domains, where not principally covered by other PCAs,” according to the supplement. Key activities under the PCA include:

• Coordinating long-term federal investments in AI R&D
• Developing effective methods for human-AI collaboration
• Understanding and addressing ethical, legal and societal implications of AI
• Ensuring the safety and security of AI systems
• Developing shared public datasets for AI training and testing
• Measuring and evaluating AI technologies to address safety, reliability, etc.
• Understanding the national AI R&D workforce needs
• Expanding public private partnerships to accelerate AI advancement

As stated earlier, new this year to the supplement is the breakdown in funding among the new National AI Research Institutes. Support for the 18 national institutes began in 2020-2021 with each institute formed among a mix of public and private entities to address both issue-specific and/or cross-cutting challenges. Note that the Department of the Air Force (DAF) and VA also began operations of other AI institutes in 2020 and are not affiliated with the ones under NSF’s purview. The 18 national institutes collectively request $68.1M for FY 2022, with $40.2M requested at the DAF and VA institutes. Refer to the supplement for funding and description breakdowns for each institute.

Throughout the supplement, whether explaining NITRD’s alignment with the new Administration’s priorities, recent events and successes related to the COVID-19 pandemic, or top agency-specific and PCA-specific activities, NITRD has AI and machine learning play a main role in it all.