Artificial intelligence (AI) has captured the public’s imagination for over 60 years, but it has proceeded in fits and starts leading to what has become known as an “AI winter” – a long period of diminished research and funding activity. Until recently, the conventional wisdom has been that new algorithms were the limiting factor in making steady progress towards artificial intelligence. However, recent advances in machine learning, have established that historical algorithms in conjunction with high-performance computers can be used to achieve nearly human-level performance on diverse tasks such as image and speech recognition, language translation, and video game play. In each of these instances rapid progress was facilitated by the […]

In response to the Cybersecurity Enhancement Act of 2014, federal agencies are developing a Federal cybersecurity research and development strategic plan. On behalf of the agencies, the NITRD Cybersecurity R&D Senior Steering Group seeks public input on research objectives for the strategic plan. The strategic plan will be used to guide and coordinate federally-funded cybersecurity research. Responses must be 25 pages or less and are due by June 19, 2015 to cybersecurity@nitrd.gov. For more information, please see the RFI’s link on the Federal Register.  Responders are asked to answer one or more of the following questions:   1. Section 201 (a)(1) of the Act identifies a number of cybersecurity objectives. What scientific, […]