The NSF AI Institute for Artificial Intelligence and Fundamental Interactions (IAIFI)
The NSF AI Institute for Artificial Intelligence and Fundamental Interactions (IAIFI, pronounced /aɪ-faɪ/) is one of the inaugural institutes of the U.S. National Science Foundation-led National Artificial Intelligence Research Institutes program. IAIFI is advancing physics knowledge – from the smallest building blocks of nature to the largest structures in the Universe – and galvanizing AI research innovation. A collaboration of physics and AI researchers at MIT, Harvard, Northeastern, and Tufts, IAIFI’s primary goals are to pioneer interdisciplinary AI+Physics research; empower the next generation of AI+Physics talent; and build a dynamic AI+Physics community.
IAIFI Events
View our full events calendar for all upcoming events.
Registration is now open for the 2025 IAIFI Summer Workshop. Register by July 31, 2025.
Our IAIFI Colloquium series will continue on May 9, 2025 with Joshua Bloom (University of California Berkeley). Recordings of our previous colloquium talks are available to view on our YouTube channel.
IAIFI News
For an archive of IAIFI news, see our news page. To receive periodic announcements about IAIFI-related activities, sign up for our mailing list and follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn.
IAIFI Fellow Jessie Micallef featured by the MIT School of Science. Read about Jessie’s’ work in “New perspectives on old questions: AI meets particle physics”. December 19, 2024
IAIFI Director Jesse Thaler featured in Physics Today. Read about his discussion with other leaders in industry, government, and academia regarding the potential impact of AI on phsyics, and of physics on AI, in “Physics, AI, and the future of discovery”. November 1, 2024
IAIFI Fellow Carol Cuesta-Lazaro was selected for the 2024 Rising Stars in Physics Workshop. The workshop invites top early career scientists in physics and astronomy to address issues relevant to women looking to successfully transition to their first faculty position. September 24-26, 2024
IAIFI Junior Investigator Ziming Liu and Senior Investigator Max Tegmark featured in Quanta Magazine. Read about their work on KANs in “Novel Architecture Makes Neural Networks More Understandable”. September 11, 2024
IAIFI Investigator Isaac Chuang and IAIFI Alumnus Curtis Northcutt awarded the 2024 IJCAI-JAIR best paper prize. Read “Confident Learning: Estimating Uncertainty in Dataset Labels”. August 2024
DUNE scientists, including IAIFI Fellow Jessie Micallef, observe first neutrinos with prototype detector at Fermilab. Learn more. August 12, 2024
IAIFI Investigator Tracy Slatyer honored as “Committed to Caring” by MIT. Read “Paying it Forward” to learn about their approach to prioritizing students’ educational journeys. June 6, 2024
IAIFI Junior Investigator Owen Dugan awarded 2024 Hertz Foundation Fellowship. Read “Ten with MIT connections win 2024 Hertz Foundation Fellowships”. June 3, 2024
IAIFI Investigator Carlos Argüelles-Delgado named a CIFAR Azrieli Global Scholar. Learn more about the 2024–2026 cohort.. May 29, 2024
IAIFI Director Jesse Thaler featured on NSF CISE Newsletter. Read “NSF CISE Newsletter”. May 23, 2024
IAIFI Director Jesse Thaler and IAIFI Investigators Phiala Shanahan and Jim Halverson featured in Symmetry Magazine. Read “Machine learning and theory”. April 30, 2024
IAIFI Director Jesse Thaler provides insight on the importance of critical thinking as a panelist at MIT’s Festival of Learning 2024. Read “MIT faculty, instructors, students experiment with generative AI in teaching and learning”. April 29, 2024
IAIFI Investigator Tracy Slatyer awarded 2024 Guggenheim Fellowship. Read “Three from MIT awarded 2024 Guggenheim Fellowships”. April 26, 2024
IAIFI Fellow Jessie Micallef featured in Symmetry Magazine. Read about their work on “Machine Learning and Experiment”. April 25, 2024
IAIFI Senior Investigator Fabian Ruehle and incoming Fellow Thomas Harvey featured in Quanta Magazine. Read about their work on how “AI Starts to Sift Through String Theory’s Near-Endless Possibilities”. April 23, 2024
IAIFI Investigator William Freeman co-authored a textbook on Computer Vision published by MIT Press, with Antonio Torralba and Philip Isola. Learn More “Foundations of Computer Vision”. April 16, 2024
IAIFI Affiliate Dan Roberts named to AI-MO prize advisory committee. Learn about the [Artificial Intelligence Mathematical Olympiad[https://aimoprize.com], which will be held in July 2024. February 7, 2024