The Allen Institute for AI

The Allen Institute for AI (AI2) is a non-profit research institute founded in 2014 by the late Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist Paul Allen. Our customers, the global research community and society at large, face significant challenges in harnessing the full potential of artificial intelligence for the common good. Many organizations encounter obstacles in accessing cutting-edge AI models, data, and research due to proprietary restrictions or lack of resources. This is why AI2 is committed to conducting high-impact AI research and engineering, making our work openly available to accelerate scientific discovery and address some of the world's most pressing problems. We believe that transparency and collaboration are crucial for the responsible development and deployment of AI.

Our customers in the scientific and research fields often struggle with the limitations of existing tools and the sheer volume of information. To address this, AI2 develops foundational AI research and innovation, delivering real-world impact through large-scale open models, data, robotics, and conservation efforts. For instance, our Semantic Scholar project provides an AI-powered search engine for academic publications, helping researchers discover relevant information more efficiently. The Aristo project successfully designed an AI system that could pass an 8th-grade science exam, demonstrating AI's potential in learning and reasoning. We also empower the AI community through open-source tools like AllenNLP, which advances natural language processing research. Recognizing the challenges in environmental conservation, AI2 has developed tools like EarthRanger and Skylight to aid in wildlife protection and marine health. Furthermore, by developing and releasing open language models like OLMo, including the underlying training data and code, we aim to foster a more inclusive and innovative AI ecosystem, enabling researchers and developers worldwide to build upon our work and create solutions for a multitude of challenges. Our commitment extends to areas like climate modeling and AI for healthcare, such as our partnership in the Cancer AI Alliance, to translate AI advancements into tangible benefits for humanity.