Higher Education

ASU, AWS expand collaboration to harness AI power on global scale

Arizona State University and Amazon Web Services announced they're pushing new initiatives to advance the use of AI in the public sector.

By Skylar Rispens

December 1, 2023

(Arizona State University / Flickr)

The next phase of the Amazon Web Services Cloud Innovation Center at Arizona State University will focus on advancing the use of artificial intelligence in the public sector, the university announced this week.

The new ASU Artificial Intelligence Cloud Innovation Center, which uses technology from AWS, has already deployed a chatbot powered by generative AI that assists local organizations to address cybersecurity risks, analyzes resumes at the university and includes a tool to query medical documents at a local medical center, the release said.

“AWS and ASU share a belief that the public sector should have access to the same tools as the world’s most innovative companies in order to build a better world,” Kim Majerus, vice president of global education and U.S. state and local government at AWS, said in a press release. “The ASU Artificial Intelligence Cloud Innovation Center will help public sector organizations worldwide collaborate in order to solve constituent challenges using AI.”

The collaboration between ASU and AWS began five years ago with a mission to help solve civic challenges in Phoenix and other metro areas in Arizona, with a focus on helping cities use “smart city,” AI and cloud technologies. The center at ASU helped develop more than 50 technology projects in areas of justice, public safety, education, health care and community improvement, according to the release.

The latest phase of the partnership expands those goals to a global scale that aims to assist government agencies, education institutions and nonprofits discover new opportunities to effectively use AI.

“At ASU, we’re recognized as a global leader in AI transformation,” Lev Gonick, ASU’s chief information officer, said in the release. “This announcement with AWS to launch the AI Cloud Innovation Center at ASU represents our dedication to leveraging AI, in all forms, for public interest–whether that be the ethical use of AI or enhancing systems and processes that address.”