Artificial Intelligence Infrastructure: Evolution through an AI Institute

Date: Oct. 23

Time: 2-3 p.m.

Q&A: 3-3:30 p.m.

Location: KEC 1001

Zoom

Title: Artificial Intelligence Infrastructure: Evolution through an AI Institute

Abstract: AI is rapidly becoming a critical layer of national infrastructure, yet the mechanisms by which we make AI systems accountable remain immature and fragmented. As frontier AI models reshape research, education, science, and industry, new national initiatives such as the National AI Research Resource (NAIRR) and the Genesis Mission are expanding access to AI capabilities while raising urgent questions about accountability, transparency, and public trust.

Drawing on five years as a co-PI of the NSF Intelligent Cyberinfrastructure with Computational Learning in the Environment (ICICLE) AI Institute, I will discuss how the ICICLE Institute has evolved its thinking in its goal of democratizing AI across the edge, cloud, and high-performance computing continuum. ICICLE has explored not only the technical challenges of composing AI functionality across distributed environments, but also the governance challenges that emerge when models, data, and workflows move across organizational and computational boundaries.

An aspect of particular interest to me is AI accountability: accountability requires that AI systems carry a memory of their origins, assumptions, limitations, and prior uses. I will reflect on the what infrastructure is needed for trustworthy AI. The next generation of AI infrastructure must support not only scale and capability, but also transparency, accountability, and public trust.

Bio

Beth Plale is Executive Director of the School of Computer and Data Sciences at the University of Oregon and a nationally recognized leader in computational and data science, cyberinfrastructure, open science, and trustworthy AI.

Before joining the University of Oregon, Plale held the Michael A. and Laurie Burns McRobbie Bicentennial Chair in Computer Engineering at Indiana University Bloomington where she also served as Chair of Indiana University's Department of Intelligent Systems Engineering and as Executive Director of the Pervasive Technology Institute, one of the nation's leading university research organizations supporting advanced computing and data-enabled discovery.

Plale's research advances the computational and data infrastructure that underpins artificial intelligence, high-performance computing, open science, reproducibility, and AI accountability. Plale has served in a major leadership role in scientific communities and institutions including the i) NSF Intelligent Cyberinfrastructure with Computational Learning in the Environment (ICICLE) AI Institute, ii) international Research Data Alliance (RDA), and iii) HathiTrust Research Center (HTRC). From 2017 to 2022, Plale served at the U.S. National Science Foundation as Science Advisor for Public Access, helping shape national approaches to shared research data and data infrastructure.

Plale’s contributions have been recognized through the U.S. Department of Energy Early Career Award, and she is a Senior Member of both ACM and IEEE.