Tuesday, April 9, 2024
Science and Technology, Academia

On April 9, during a visit to the United States, MEXT Minister MORIYAMA Masahito met with Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) David Turk to discuss bilateral cooperation in AI for Science and other areas and signed a Project Arrangement on High-Performance Computing and AI.

This new project arrangement replaces the Project Arrangement on Computer Science and Software signed in 2014. Considering recent technological innovations in generative AI, and the growing importance of computational resources, the both countries agreed to significantly expand cooperation in the fields of High-Performance Computing (HPC)* and AI.

Based on this new arrangement, MEXT is promoting Japan-U.S. cooperation in AI for Science, which utilize AI foundation models for scientific research.

AI for Science is expected to revolutionize methods and framework of scientific research . In order to realize AI for Science and to lead the world in all fields of scientific research, the two countries will cooperate in the development of AI foundation models for scientific research, advancement of computation by combining simulation and AI, and sharing knowledge of HPC architectures and devices.

On April 5, a new Memorandum of Understanding on AI for Science was signed between RIKEN and Argonne National Laboratory, a research center of the U.S. Department of Energy. Under this new project arrangement, MEXT will work to further expand similar bilateral collaborations.

*High-Performance Computing (HPC): Research using supercomputers and other high-performance computing devices.