FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
The DAF-MIT AI Accelerator combines the expertise and resources of MIT and the Air Force and Space Force to conduct fundamental research enabling rapid prototyping, scaling, and application of AI algorithms and systems. The AI Accelerator is designed to make fundamental advances in artificial intelligence that improve Department of the Air Force operations while also addressing broader societal needs. AI Accelerator research teams consist of interdisciplinary teams, including DAF personnel, that collaborate across different fields of AI to create new algorithms and tools. (MIT News).
In 2024, the DAF and MIT renewed their cooperative agreement, extending the successful and impactful AI Accelerator for another five years (DAF AI Accelerator News). The AI Accelerator, which has been advancing fundamental research in AI and focusing on hard problems, has brought operationally relevant solutions and expertise to DAF operations by enabling rapid prototyping, scaling, and application of AI algorithms and systems.
This AI Accelerator’s unique and historic collaboration embraces a robust and ongoing dialogue with America’s leading academics and technologists to help guide the future of an AI future to ensure the competitive advantage of the United States in the defense and civilian sectors, reflecting for the Department of Air Force that reflects our nation’s values.
The AI Accelerator involves researchers, professors, and students from across MIT Campus and MIT Lincoln Laboratory. More than 10 Airmen are embedded in the Accelerator’s research projects at MIT. AI Accelerator stakeholders include many Department of the Air Force units, the Department of the Navy, the Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office (CDAO), AFWERX, KesselRun, Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), and Air Force Cyberworx.
For Academia: Researchers can participate in the challenge problems developed by the AI Accelerator research projects.
For Industry: Industry can participate in challenge problems developed by the AI Accelerator and are encouraged to leverage published research to commercialize AI advances.
For Airmen (USAF) and Guardians (USSF): Please reach out to us using the Contact Us page if you or your team think that you have challenges that can be solved by AI. We also offer internships for USAF/USSF ROTC and Air Force Academy Cadets.
For Airmen (USAF) and Guardians (USSF): Please reach out to us using the Contact Us page if you or your team think that you have challenges that can be solved by AI. We also offer internships for USAF/USSF ROTC and Air Force Academy Cadets.
We accelerate fundamental AI research through rapid prototyping, scaling, and application of AI algorithms and systems to improve Department of the Air Force operations and address underserved societal needs.
A Challenge is a means to engage academia, industry, and the public towards solving a common problem. In the context of Machine Learning, challenges have commonly involved open competitions organized around a publicly released data set. The team or individual developing the best Machine Learning model to learn from or analyze that data set wins! The world-wide collaboration resulting from such challenges has historically driven fundamental advances in many fields. In some communities, these challenges are also called “Hackathons.” Challenges play an important role in advancing diverse fields of AI research. A major goal of each AI Accelerator project is to host challenges for the public. More about AI Accelerator challenges can be found here.
AI Accelerator publications can be found on our Google Scholar page.
