What’s inside?

This INFORMS white paper explores how the boundaries between Artificial Intelligence (AI) and operation research (O.R.) technologies are blurring and influencing the INFORMS community. It starts by defining AI in this context and examines synergies between O.R. and AI, then examines ways in which the two areas can benefit from one another. The goal is to determine ways of increasing awareness of the following. 

The role of O.R. within the AI community 

• What are the ways in which O.R. is already contributing to research in AI? 
• How can INFORMS and the profession be in a better position to contribute to and benefit from AI? 
• How does INFORMS get the word out about its interest in collaboration? 

The role of AI within the INFORMS community 

• What opportunities do AI/ML provide for the O.R. community? 
• Does AI pose a threat to O.R.? Can INFORMS find its rightful place in this space? How does INFORMS ignite urgency around this concern? 
• Does INFORMS need to increase its efforts in education, publications, workshops, and other activities that illustrate the synergies between O.R. and AI? 

The role of O.R. for AI to the public and government 

• How can we increase awareness of how important O.R. is to AI with funding agencies, employers, and the public at large? 

In addition to answering the above questions, this internal white paper highlights the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration across the various research areas needed to succeed with AI. Preliminary outreach to professional organizations (e.g., AAAI, SIAM, EURO, NISS, etc.) has shown that collaboration across the societies is uniformly seen as a critical activity that will be supported. Now is the time for INFORMS to capitalize on this interest. 

This white paper takes the view that AI is much more than the latest buzzword: It recognizes that AI is making fundamental advances in science, engineering, and technology that will eventually transform every sector of the economy. AI, together with high-performance computing, provides the engine behind the data revolution.