New York State partners with universities on AI research center

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul this week announced a $20 million investment that aims to advance the state’s artificial intelligence goals through a collaboration between the University of Albany, IBM and a new AI research group with the State University of New York.

The collaboration will create the Center for Emerging Artificial Intelligence Systems, where researchers will conduct projects that advance cloud computing and emerging hardware. The center is the next evolution in the University of Albany’s AI Plus initiative, which integrates teaching and learning across the university’s research and academic enterprises.

“Researchers across UAlbany’s nine schools and colleges are employing artificial intelligence to power new discoveries about our world,” university President Havidan Rodriguez said in a press release. “The Center for Emerging Artificial Intelligence Systems will significantly expand UAlbany’s researchers’ access to AI supercomputing resources and make our university a leading academic test bed for some of the latest computing technology developed by IBM.”

The center is the latest development in the ongoing collaboration between SUNY and IBM. The two founded the IBM Research AI Hardware Center in 2019, where academics and industry researchers collaborate to create faster, more powerful and energy-efficient chips.

The collaboration also spurred the creation of an SUNY AI Research Group made of 60 members who plan to develop a course for the system’s future strategy in AI research, education, policy and workforce development.

“SUNY is at  the forefront of the wave of development and application of artificial intelligence into higher education and the workforce through research and scholarship,” SUNY Chancellor John B. King, Jr. said in a press release. “SUNY’s AI Research Group brings together top experts and practitioners to cement SUNY as a global leader in AI-focused education, research and workforce development.”