The University of Georgia is joining the NextGenAI consortium, a partnership with 14 other leading research institutions and technology company OpenAI to accelerate AI research and education.
OpenAI, known for its generative AI technologies including ChatGPT, is committing $50 million in research grants, access to OpenAI’s tools and compute funding through the consortium. The initiative will support the discovery and development of new applications for AI and provide students with hands-on experience working with the technology.
“We are excited to join such a distinguished group of institutions in this vital endeavor to push the frontiers of AI and data science,” said Jeanette Taylor, vice provost for academic affairs and chair of the university’s Leadership Council on Artificial Intelligence. “This partnership will advance UGA’s efforts to apply these cutting-edge technologies to the world’s great challenges.”
Joining UGA as founding members of the consortium are private institutions Caltech, Duke University, Harvard University, Howard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, as well as public institutions including the California State University system, the University of Michigan, the University of Mississippi, The Ohio State University and Texas A&M University. Other partners include the University of Oxford, Sciences Po, Boston Children’s Hospital, the Boston Public Library and OpenAI.
Participation in the NextGenAI consortium will bolster UGA’s longstanding commitment to interdisciplinary AI and data science research and education. Faculty at UGA began exploring the field of AI more than 40 years ago, and today, the university’s Institute for Artificial Intelligence serves as a hub for cross-cutting AI and data science research and academic programs. Supported by the Office of the Provost and the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, IAI includes faculty members from nearly every corner of campus including computer science, philosophy, linguistics, psychology, engineering, business, forestry and many other fields.
UGA researchers are leveraging AI to find solutions to a wide range of challenges. Among many other projects, faculty are assessing potential cybersecurity threats facing Georgia’s county governments, developing large language models for telemedicine and exploring what drives students’ interest and curiosity while learning science.
Last fall, UGA received a separate five-year, $10 million grant from the Institute of Education Sciences to establish a research and development center that will provide national leadership on best practices for using generative AI in schools.
The university’s strategic investments in AI and data science include the Presidential Interdisciplinary Faculty Hiring Initiative in Data Science and Artificial Intelligence that began in 2021. Through this initiative, UGA recruited 70 faculty members with expertise in applying data science and artificial intelligence to address challenges facing local communities, the state and the world.
“The field of AI wouldn’t be where it is today without decades of work in the academic community,” Brad Lightcap, OpenAI chief operating officer, said in a statement announcing the consortium. “NextGenAI will accelerate research progress and catalyze a new generation of institutions equipped to harness the transformative power of AI.”
