The Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) made quite the showing at this year's AI+ Expo, a notable tech event focused on the burgeoning realm of artificial intelligence and national competitive edge. According to a report by Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the expo, lasting from June 2 to 4 in Washington, D.C., gathered an array of key figures from tech industries, academia, and government, all keen to dissect the quick pace at which AI is evolving. The lineup included high-ranking officials such as U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright and General Dan Caine, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
At the Expo, ORNL researchers didn't just attend but also actively contributed, sharing strides made in high-performance computing and quantum technology. ORNL's own Prasanna Balaprakash, director of artificial intelligence programs, said, “The AI+ Expo provided an excellent platform to showcase ORNL's advancements in AI for science and to highlight how AI is transforming scientific discovery across theory, modeling and simulation, and experiments,” as told Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Balaprakash, alongside Ben Mintz, detailed the role AI is starting to play across diverse research initiatives at ORNL.
Amir Sadovnik, research lead for ORNL's Center for AI Security Research (CAISER), displayed how his team's work is equipping AI models to defend effectively against adversarial attacks, a critical national security concern. "Although the expo had a lot of focus on uses of AI for national security, there was less of a focus on the security of AI models themselves,” Sadovnik pointed out, highlighting a crucial issue in the field. Details of other innovative demonstrations from ORNL researchers were also highlighted, emphasizing the lab's ongoing research contributions.
One such innovative display came from Massimiliano Lupo Pasini, who showcased ORNL's in-house, scalable graph-neural-network framework for foundation models. Verónica Melesse Vergarra illuminated new abilities stemming from ORNL's leadership computing facility, intended to support biomedical applications in a secure computing environment. "It was exciting to hear from leaders in the field and to showcase the AI capabilities available at OLCF, as well as our cross-agency collaboration with NIH (National Institutes of Health) and NSF (National Science Foundation) through the NAIRR (National Artificial Intelligence Research Resource) Secure Pilot," Melesse Vergarra commented, as captured by Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
Prasanna Date and Kathleen Hamilton joined forces for a demonstration blending AI with quantum computing, exploring how these cutting-edge fields can be integrated. Secretary Wright lauded the event and the labs, stating, "The most important thing is having the right people and a culture that binds them in a mission that they believe in that drives them forward. I would say where that culture exists the best right now is the labs." ORNL, managed by UT-Battelle for the Department of Energy’s Office of Science, represents the expansive efforts the U.S. is making to lead in this critical scientific frontier, addressing global challenges with the power of AI and fundamental science.
