Now that Gov. Kathy Hochul has formed a new state artificial intelligence consortium with the University at Buffalo as its hub, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer wants the new Empire AI to play a leading role in a new federal AI research pilot program that launched last month.
The stretch of upstate including Buffalo, Rochester and Syracuse has been chosen as a federally designated "tech hub," giving the region a chance at upwards of $75 million in funding aimed at transforming its economy into the Silicon Valley of the microchip industry.
Schumer has invited the heads of the Biden administration’s National AI Research Resource pilot to visit New York and “strongly consider” Empire AI for their two-year project to create a national shared infrastructure for AI innovation.
“I write in light of … the establishment of a pilot project for the National AI Research Resource,” Schumer wrote in a letter he shared with The Buffalo News, “and to urge you to strongly consider a consortium formed out of leading New York research institutions as a potential home for this pilot. I would like to invite the Biden administration to send senior officials to visit New York and meet with key stakeholders to discuss this further.”
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The letter to the directors of the National Science Foundation and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy is dated Jan. 4, and the NSF launched the new national pilot on Jan. 24. Schumer’s office said he has not heard back but hopes to arrange a visit within the year.
The state and national AI consortiums are forming at a time when AI is rapidly advancing and upstate New York is seeking federal funding as a designated Tech Hub that will unite the Buffalo, Rochester and Syracuse areas in building an I-90 semiconductor corridor, with Micron Technology anchoring the eastern end, near Syracuse.
Micron plans to invest up to $100 billion in a chip-making complex that officials hope will fuel growth across the regional semiconductor and AI industries.
Just as Schumer fought for the region’s Tech Hub designation, he is going after federal inclusion of Empire AI in the new national program, which aims to share AI resources among government-funded, industry, education and research entities to collaborate on AI innovation and policy.
NSF has announced 10 other federal agencies and 25 nongovernmental partners for the pilot, which “will focus on supporting research and education across the nationwide research community, while gaining insights that will refine the design of a full NAIRR” in two years, according to the NSF website.
Federal partners in the national pilot include NASA, the National Institutes of Health, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the U.S. departments of agriculture, defense, energy and veterans affairs, among others.
The 25 private partners include IBM, Google, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI, EleutherAI, Amazon Web Services and other tech companies. The NSF is inviting other interested institutions to submit proposals for partnership in the pilot, and Schumer wants Empire AI to be first in line for consideration.
Hochul announced the formation of Empire AI at her State of the State address on Jan. 9, to give New York a lead in promoting “responsible research and development, creating jobs and unlocking AI opportunities focused on public good,” she said. Two weeks later, she visited UB to announce it will be Empire AI’s hub. The
Schumer noted UB is already home to a supercomputing center and multimillion-dollar AI research centers, including the National AI Institute for Exceptional Education, which it founded last year with a $20 million, five-year NSF grant to develop AI systems to screen and assist young children with speech and language challenges.
“The NSF award recognized UB’s well-established work in AI research, including its Institute for Artificial Intelligence and Data Science and the Center for Information Integrity,” Schumer’s office said in a news release. “With New York State already taking the initiative to establish the University at Buffalo-based Empire AI consortium, partnering with the feds is a natural fit.”
“UB and the broader Empire AI consortium will collaborate with industry to provide free access to key technology and support, like advanced computing, datasets, and powerful AI models to support AI research, training, and entrepreneurship,” Schumer said in a statement.
UB President Satish K. Tripathi said UB “would be honored to welcome the Biden administration to campus to see how we are harnessing our multidisciplinary AI expertise in service of societal good.”
“Senator Schumer has been instrumental in supporting federally funded research, including transformative research in artificial intelligence,” Tripathi said. “UB has been at the forefront of responsible AI research and application for nearly 50 years, and our depth of expertise positions us to lead the AI movement well into the future.”
UB’s pioneering role in AI research goes back to the 1990s, when UB computer scientist Venu Govindaraju, now UB vice president for research and development, used machine learning to devise a handwriting recognition system that saves the U.S. Postal Service hundreds of millions of dollars by processing and barcoding 25 billion hand-addressed letters a year.
UB now has some 200 faculty researchers working on AI-related projects, such as using AI to diagnose and treat brain aneurysms, help first responders during natural disasters, modernize manufacturing and develop new materials for space applications, from satellite sensors to cosmic radiation shields.
At her State of the State and the Empire AI designation at UB, Hochul has pointed to research by a UB computer science student who has used AI to reveal racial bias in how academic services are allocated to children in foster care and devise ways to improve outcomes for young people in the national child welfare system.
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