MIT's Institute for Artificial Intelligence and Fundamental Interactions renews NSF funding.

The National Science Foundation has renewed its support for the MIT-led Institute for Artificial Intelligence and Fundamental Interactions (IAIFI) with an additional five years of funding, increasing annual funding from $4 million to $4.98 million. This renewal marks a significant milestone for IAIFI, which has spent its first five years building a research model and an interdisciplinary community around the central premise that AI can open new ways of doing physics, while physics can help mold better AI systems.

IAIFI was launched in 2020 as part of the National Artificial Intelligence Research Institutes program, bringing together researchers from MIT, along with Harvard, Northeastern, Tufts, and Boston universities. The institute's work has shown that machine learning can accelerate discovery in physics, while insights from physics can make AI systems more principled and interpretable. According to Jesse Thaler, IAIFI's director and a professor of physics at MIT, "From the beginning, IAIFI has been built around a two-way street: AI enabling better physics, and physics enabling better AI."

IAIFI's research spans multiple areas, including particle physics, nuclear physics, astrophysics, and foundational AI, with many advances emerging from collaborations across these areas. 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.

The institute's work in astrophysics is also noteworthy, with machine learning being used to uncover new cosmic phenomena and improve the sensitivity of the MIT-led LIGO gravitational-wave experiment. 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.

Mike Williams, interim director of IAIFI and a professor of physics at MIT, notes that "AI has begun to transform how physicists tackle some of the field's most challenging problems. 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." This is evident in the work being done at IAIFI, where researchers are pushing the boundaries of what is possible at the intersection of AI and physics.

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. Eight fellows have completed the program to date, with three securing faculty positions and others taking research roles at leading AI companies or joining startups. This reflects how broadly the skills cultivated at IAIFI translate, and the impact that the institute is having on the next generation of researchers.

IAIFI's 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, demonstrating the growing interest in this field and the importance of IAIFI's work. According to Phiala Shanahan, IAIFI's interim deputy director and a professor of physics at MIT, "The IAIFI Fellowship shows what can happen when early-career scientists are given the freedom and support to work across traditional boundaries. Our fellows aren't just contributing to physics or to AI separately — they are helping shape a growing field at the intersection."

The renewal of NSF funding for IAIFI is a significant boost to the institute's research and a testament to the importance of its work. As IAIFI continues to push the boundaries of what is possible at the intersection of AI and physics, it is likely to have a profound impact on our understanding of the universe and the development of new technologies. With its unique approach to research and its investment in the next generation of scientists, IAIFI is poised to remain at the forefront of this exciting and rapidly evolving field.