The U.S. will invest $765 million through 2024 to establish 12 research centers in artificial intelligence (AI) and quantum information science, including quantum computing, according to a Trump administration announcement.
Quantum information science exploits quirks of quantum mechanics to create computers and similar devices that can operate exponentially faster than current designs.
Google, IBM, Intel, and other tech giants will take part, boosting the project’s funding to more than $1 billion.
Seven centers will be university-based, with each focused on an AI specialty and receiving $20 million a year for five years. For example, a center at the University of Oklahoma in Norman will house the National Science Foundation’s Institute for Research on Trustworthy AI in Weather, Climate, and Coastal Oceanography.
The other five centers will be sited at the U.S. Energy Department’s national laboratories. As with the AI centers, each will focus on a specific aspect of quantum science, such as developing quantum computers, quantum sensors, and creating a potentially non-hackable quantum Internet.
The Argonne National Laboratory’s Illinois center has been dubbed Q-NEXT and will develop quantum networks and materials for quantum technologies.
The private companies involved will add another $300 million to the centers’ budgets.
The initiative to establish the centers is the fruit of five years of planning and development across the Obama and Trump administrations.
TRENDPOST: The centers will help the U.S. begin to catch up with similar research already well along in China, setting both countries to compete for ownership of technologies that will define 21st-century computing.
