Signal DARPA AI Forge — Accelerating AI Breakthroughs for National Security

Summary

DARPA announced the AI Forge program on June 1, 2026, developed jointly with the National Science Foundation, with an RFI response deadline of June 22, 2026 and a forum launch planned for summer 2026. The program also involves the Center for AI Standards and Innovation (CAISI) at NIST and is administered by a nonprofit entity, drawing participation from more than 15 Department of War and Intelligence Community agencies. It is organized around three research thrust areas — AI interpretability, AI control, and adversarial robustness — spanning 15 research challenges reviewed on a six-month cycle, and targets university-led research teams combining academic talent with frontier-scale compute and models. DARPA program manager Matthew Marge said the initiative aims to "build an ambitious new ecosystem that bridges" the gap between commercial AI and national security requirements. The program is described as connected to America's AI Action Plan and is meant to address underexplored national security AI challenges lacking immediate commercial applications.