Hochul creates consortium that includes SUNY, Cornell to focus on AI research, innovation

ALBANY, N.Y. — Gov. Kathy Hochul on Monday announced the creation of a consortium that will create and launch an artificial intelligence (AI) computer center in upstate New York.

Institutions throughout the state would use the center “to promote responsible research and development, create jobs, and unlock AI opportunities focused on public good,” Hochul’s office said.

The governor wants the consortium — named Empire AI — and center to “secure New York’s place at the forefront of the artificial intelligence transformation,” per a news release.

The University at Buffalo is under consideration as a potential site.

Empire AI will be a consortium that includes seven founding institutions — Cornell University, the State University of New York (SUNY), Columbia University, New York University, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, the City University of New York (CUNY), and the Simons Foundation.

Hochul also released a new policy to ensure agencies within state government understand how to “responsibly harness the opportunity of AI technology to better serve New Yorkers.”

“The Empire AI consortium will be transformative: Bringing jobs and opportunity to New York and making us a global leader in this groundbreaking sector,” Hochul said in the release. “Together with our partners in academia and the private sector, we’ll harness the power of artificial intelligence and ensure this technology is being used for the public interest.”

By increasing collaboration between New York’s research institutions, Empire AI will allow for “efficiencies of scale not able to be achieved by any single university, empower and attract top notch faculty and expand educational opportunity, and give rise to a wave of responsible innovation that will significantly strengthen our state’s economy and our national security,” Hochul’s office said.

Bringing together AI researchers, scientists, entrepreneurs, philanthropists and others, more than $400 million in public and private investment will help pay for the initiative. The figure includes up to $275 million from the state in grant and other funding, and more than $125 million from the founding institutions and other private partners including the Simons Foundation and Tom Secunda.

The Simon Foundation’s Flatiron Institute is a community of scientists working to advance research through computational methods, including data analysis, theory, modeling and simulation.

Tom Secunda is co-founder of Bloomberg LP and the Secunda Family Foundation, which provides millions of dollars a year in grants to conservation, health care, scientific advancement, and other causes, Hochul’s office noted.