The Artificial Intelligence Institute for Next Generation Food Systems, or AIFS, was launched October 1, 2020 to solve the world’s biggest challenges to crop and food production facing our planet: ensuring a sustainable, nutritious, efficient and safe food supply while mitigating the impacts of climate change.The institute has been designed to be inclusive, fostering collaborations to develop open-source AI solutions across the food system. Given food’s fundamental role in human health and well-being, coupled with its far-reaching impacts on the national economy and environment, the institute brings together more than 40 researchers from six institutions: UC Davis, UC Berkeley, Cornell University, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, UC Agriculture and Natural Resources, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service.This work is supported by AFRI Competitive Grant no. 2020-67021-32855/project accession no. 1024262 from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture.