MITRE Response to 2025 National AI R&D Strategic Plan RFI

What's the issue? The Networking and Information Technology Research and Development (NITRD) National Coordination Office (NCO), on behalf of the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), issued a Request for Information (RFI) seeking input on updating the National Artificial Intelligence Research and Development Strategic Plan (2023 Update). The goal is to revise the plan to secure America's position as the global leader in artificial intelligence (AI) by accelerating innovation, enhancing economic and national security, promoting human flourishing, and maintaining the United States' dominance in AI dominance while focusing on the Federal government's unique role in AI research and development (R&D) over the next 3 to 5 years. Responses to the previous RFI on the AI Action Plan will also be considered.

What do we recommend? MITRE points out that investment in public-private partnership in R&D is essential to fostering invention and driving innovation. The government plays a key role in reducing the institutional risk associated with research, particularly in areas with long-term national benefits. To this end, MITRE emphasizes the need for the government to invest in the following:

• AI Research Grand Challenges: Establishing AI Grand Challenge problems of U.S. strategic importance where private investment is unlikely to advance leadership, aligning federal research investments with national interests, and uniting government, industry, and academia to address critical missions through transformative solutions. Research focus areas include biotechnology, semiconductors, domestic energy, advanced manufacturing, cybersecurity, national security, and efficient and effective government.
• Federal Frontier Labs: Creating Federal Frontier Labs (FFLs) as hubs for public-private partnerships to drive domain-specific breakthroughs, leverage government data, and secure infrastructure for mission-critical AI development, ensuring the U.S. maintains its competitive edge in AI innovation and adoption.
• AI Assurance Research for Trusted Innovation: Advancing AI assurance research to develop repeatable engineering approaches for discovering, assessing, and managing risks throughout the life cycle of AI-enabled systems, ensuring reliability, security, and trustworthiness while fostering public trust and accelerating adoption in critical domains.
• Securing American AI Research: Implementing comprehensive security measures to protect AI research, data, and infrastructure from adversarial threats, including robust cybersecurity, physical security, intelligence collection, and information-sharing frameworks to safeguard U.S. research investments and maintain global leadership in AI innovation.