We’re taking the opportunity to share this with the community to help spread the word. We think that the foundational work being done in the AI Forge project to bring the government into conversation with academia and industry is a crucial step to ensure alignment research gets deployed into government and military applications. See the announcement below.
Dear Colleagues,
I am thrilled to announce the official launch of the next phase of the DARPA-NSF-CAISI AI Forge Program. You can read the press report for further details.
The program has identified the most critical AI challenges facing our national security, and now we are building the exact ecosystem needed to solve them. Today, we are releasing two major milestones that will shape the future of artificial intelligence research:
1. The "Critical AI Challenges for National Security" Report
This report defines the most pressing technical hurdles in advanced AI adoption today. Developed in collaboration with eight leading frontier AI companies and over fifteen Chief AI Officers from the Department of War (DoW) and the Intelligence Community (IC), it outlines the concrete challenges that the research community must address.
2. The AI Forge Request for Information (RFI)
To tackle these challenges, DARPA has released a Request for Information (RFI) targeting U.S. universities. AI Forge aims to build an unprecedented ecosystem that pairs the foundational research engines of academia with the massive scale, compute, and capabilities of frontier AI companies.
The program is seeking university partners with the agility to execute fast-paced, high-reward "Project Ventures" – ranging from $750K to $3M or higher – spanning up to one year in duration.
Please start thinking about how you will address these challenges. Responses to this RFI will directly inform the upcoming solicitation for abstracts, which will culminate in the first AI Forge Pitch Day.
Our Key Focus Areas: The Three Strategic Thrusts
We are asking universities to submit their capabilities to lead research aligned with the program’s core thrusts:
| | | Enabling actionable understanding. | | Ensuring reliable performance. | | Building secure AI for contested environments. |
Next Steps & Submission Details
To ensure administrative clarity, each university must submit a single, unified response authorized by the university Vice President for Research, Provost, or equivalent position.
Since the conception of this program, I’ve believed that bringing together the best of academic rigor and industry scale and expertise is how we will achieve the impossible. I look forward to reviewing your institution's response and partnering to drive the next generation of AI innovation.
Best regards,
Matthew Marge
Program Manager, IPTO
DARPA