On January 24th, 2024, the NSF’s National Artificial Intelligence Research Resource (NAIRR) working group released a Request for Information to, “gather current and anticipated research and education use cases for the NAIRR Pilot and to also identify current and anticipated challenges and barriers that researchers and educators may face in accessing and using AI resources and tools for their activities”.   The field of AI is evolving at a breathtaking pace, becoming increasingly integral to various research domains and educational settings. However, accessing large-scale computing resources, AI-ready datasets, and pretrained models, which are necessary to conduct AI research, can be a significant barrier to entry for researchers, educators, and students. […]

The Computing Community Consortium’s (CCC) Grand Challenges task force is engaging in a new visioning activity to identify the next grand challenges that will shape the future of our field. We’re seeking visionary thinkers and researchers to join us in this exciting exploration.   The community has been inundated with innovation and acceleration over the last decade, resulting in a world in which information, communication, and computational technologies permeate human interactions and enable essential functions of society.  These virtual roundtable discussions will aim to consider the whole of the field of computing in this context and ask what the new fundamentally “computing research” issues might be that could produce a […]

    The 2024 AAAS Meeting is coming up later this week, beginning on Thursday, February 15th and ending on Saturday, February 17th in Denver, Colorado. This year, CCC is sponsoring three scientific sessions on various topics in computing:       Generative AI in Science: Promises and Pitfalls – Friday, Feb 16th from 2:30 – 3:30 pm MST (Room: Mile High 2A (Ballroom Level, Conv. Center))  Moderator: Matthew Turk (Toyota Technological Institute at Chicago and CCC Council member) Panelists: Rebecca Willett (University of Chicago), Markus Buehler (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), and Duncan Watson-Parris (University of California San Diego) Large Language Models: Helpful Assistants, Romantic Partners, or Con Artists? – […]

The CCC, on Friday of last week, responded to a Request for Information to assist NIST with executing the tasks assigned to them in the Executive Order on Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence, issued on October 30, 2023. The CCC’s response raised critical points about the challenges associated with the widespread adoption of generative AI. The rapid advancement of AI tools poses risks, particularly in content authentication, where reliable detection methods are still lacking. The complexity of the problem demands a nuanced approach, acknowledging the limitations of current detection tools and emphasizing the need for flexible and adaptive solutions, especially as both AI detection tools […]

Thank you to everyone who has nominated a colleague or self-nominated for the opportunity to be a CCC Council member for the three-year term beginning July 1, 2024 and concluding June 30, 2027.   As a reminder, Tomorrow, Friday, February 2nd, is the last day to submit a nomination to be considered during this year’s selection process. Nominations will be open through 11:59pm EST on Friday, February 2, 2024.   To nominate someone, please email ccc-nominations@cra.org the following information: Name, affiliation, and email address of the nominee. Areas of research expertise. Previous significant service to the research community and other relevant experience, with years it occurred (no more than *five* […]

The following originally appeared on the CRA Bulletin, written by Haley Griffin, Program Associate, CCC, and Matt Hazenbush, Director of Communications Following an intensive recompete process, the Computing Community Consortium (CCC) is pleased to announce it has been awarded a $5 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to continue serving the computing research community for another two years.  Building on CCC’s strong track record of impact, the new award will enable the implementation of several notable enhancements to CCC operations, including strengthening its communications outreach and establishing a new evaluation strategy to support CCC’s continuous improvement.  “I’m very pleased to be continuing our partnership with NSF,” said Dan Lopresti, […]