Empire AI will boost tech leadership, protect public’s interests
The Times Union’s recent reporting about Ualbany researchers using artificial intelligence to expose illegal logging underscores an important point about AI, one that is too often lost in the hype and hysteria.
AI is about much more than complex algorithms and the latest hardware. At its core, it is a powerful tool that enables other groundbreaking scientific discoveries and creative activity.
Ualbany chemists, for example, are using lasers to detect pre-clinical signs of Alzheimer’s disease. Analyzing this data requires the computing power of AI to see what a human alone could not.
Elsewhere, our colleagues are using AI to improve winter weather prediction, analyze disability bias in the fashion industry, understand early humans’ impact on prehistoric ecosystems and model the public health impact of gun policy changes.
Gov. Kathy Hochul’s proposed $275 million investment in the Empire AI consortium is about so much more than building supercomputers. But this tech infrastructure is necessary to ensure New Yorkers — not just large tech companies — have the right tools to tackle these complex societal problems.
Trepidation about such transformative technology is understandable. But I see boundless opportunities.
Imagine what the state’s renowned Wadsworth Center could do with state-of-the-art computing to analyze its trove of public health data. What advances might be made in combating racial, ethnic and economic health disparities?
Empire AI is a down payment on our ability to harness this technology for the public good through the thoughtful, ethical and equitable development of next-generation AI systems.
In SUNY’S four research centers — Albany, Binghamton, Buffalo and Stony Brook — New York has deep expertise and computing infrastructure. Ualbany and UB, for example, were both recently named members of a U.S. Artificial Intelligence Safety Institute consortium charged with developing pathways to safe and trustworthy AI.
Combined with the resources of leading private partners like Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Empire AI will fuel powerful collaborations from New York City to Buffalo.
The Albany Nanotech Complex offers an excellent blueprint: Assemble leading academic and industry researchers, attach forward-thinking educational and workforce training programs, and seed it with strategic public-private investments. Then watch as innovation flourishes.
Today, Albany is a strong contender to host the National Semiconductor Technology Center because leaders three decades ago saw the wisdom of this approach. The recent landmark $1.5 billion federal grant to Globalfoundries’ new Saratoga County chip fab is further evidence of the potential of this framework.
New York’s continued leadership in the semiconductor industry will be directly related to the investments we make now in AI. Artificial intelligence is essential for designing the next generation of semiconductors, and the latest chips, such as nanoscale memory devices capable of mimicking the human brain, will pave the way for powerful new AI systems.
Ualbany is making foundational learning about AI available to every major on campus, and our College of Nanotechnology, Science, and Engineering is using artificial intelligence software to train workers in how to operate the data centers that power AI and the cleanrooms that manufacture microchips.
Empire AI is the necessary next step in New York’s investment in tech leadership. It will help ensure New Yorkers reap the full economic benefits of being a world-class research and development hub.
Gov. Hochul has rightly noted that the computing power behind AI is concentrated in the hands of large technology companies. By ensuring that our students have a strong grounding in AI and that our researchers have unfettered access to the technology, Empire AI will help harness AI’S immense power for the benefit of all New Yorkers.
As one of the nation’s most diverse public research institutions, Ualbany has a special obligation to ensure that this remarkable technology is developed responsibly and with the public’s interests in mind.