DARPA picks Canadian firm for AI-based modelling research project
ASKEM will create a knowledge-modelling simulation ecosystem, says DARPA. (Photo: DARPA)
The Automating Scientific Knowledge Extraction and Modeling programme seeks to harness AI for decision-making.
Canadian company Uncharted Software has obtained a $19.3 million contract from DARPA to conduct research under the Automating Scientific Knowledge Extraction and Modeling (ASKEM) programme.
ASKEM will create a knowledge-modelling simulation ecosystem ‘empowered with the artificial intelligence approaches and tools needed to support expert knowledge- and data-informed decision making in diverse missions and scientific domains’, the DoD explained in a 14 July announcement.
Work will be performed in Toronto and Washington DC, with an expected completion date of January 2026.
‘This contract was a competitive acquisition under an open Broad Agency Announcement and 29 offers were received,’ the DoD noted.
ASKEM is derived from a predecessor AI exploitation programme from DARPA called Automating Scientific Knowledge Extraction (ASKE).
The ASKE project identified how and where AI could accelerate the process of scientific modelling, DARPA noted.
It added that tools and approaches developed via ASKEM ‘will be demonstrated in several scientific domains’.
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