Princeton Language and Intelligence initiative pushes the boundaries of large AI models

A new initiative aims to enhance our fundamental understanding of AI, enable its use in academic disciplines, and examine AI’s safety, policy and ethical implications. The Princeton Language and Intelligence (PLI) initiative, announced in October 2023, will enable the purchase of a state-of-the-art computer cluster and also fund human intelligence, in the form of a group of postdoctoral research fellows and research scientists and engineers at all levels. Sanjeev Arora, Princeton’s Charles C. Fitzmorris Professor in Computer Science, who has conducted research at the intersection of language and AI for many years, will be the PLI director. The computer cluster will be one of the biggest in academia, giving Princeton researchers access to the hardware needed to innovate with large language models, which are at the heart of technologies such as ChatGPT.

“Over the past year or so, the pace of progress in artificial intelligence has surprised even the experts in the field, leading to exciting applications, unprecedented commercial investment — and understandable societal concerns,” said Princeton Provost Jennifer Rexford at the kickoff symposium for the initiative on Sept. 26, 2023.