Leading AI Toward Good

The University at Buffalo is working at the forefront of the ongoing AI revolution, bringing decades of expertise and innovation to bear to ensure that these new technologies benefit the public good.

In the 1990s, a team of computer scientists at UB delivered one of the first practical success stories of artificial intelligence: development of a handwriting recognition system for the U.S. Postal Service. The forward-thinking technology has saved the agency billions of dollars in operational costs.

Today, with a slate of top talent and substantial public and private investment, UB research continues to push the capabilities and applications of AI in numerous areas, all with a singular aim of solving societal challenges both large and small.

The UB researchers responsible for the mail-sorting breakthrough were part of a small but determined UB lab known as the Center of Excellence for Document Analysis and Recognition, or CEDAR; it started in the 1970s, in the infancy of the field.

The work paved the way for today’s advanced technologies in image and voice recognition. It also established UB as a groundbreaker in artificial intelligence research.

The university now has more than 200 faculty at work on a wide array of foundational and use-inspired AI projects. Their aims encompass advances in computational research and modeling as well as major improvements in everything from health sciences to education, information integrity, social justice, sustainability and ethics. Research projects currently underway involve tapping the power of AI to treat brain aneurysms, spot Type 2 diabetes trends, detect deepfakes with accuracy, improve indoor greenhouse plant production, help first responders during natural disasters, modernize manufacturing systems, predict disease progression during aging, map glacial ice in the Arctic, develop new materials for space applications and more.

The breadth of work hasn’t gone unnoticed. Last year, New York State Gov. Kathy Hochul designated UB as the home base of a newly formed statewide consortium called Empire AI. The consortium will create a hub where public and private research institutions across the state can together leverage the vast possibilities of artificial intelligence to solve a spectrum of societal problems. Empire AI will not only accelerate critical research and innovation, but also serve as a reliable, trustworthy source of information as AI technologies advance.

The $400 million initiative, which aims to put New York at the forefront of the AI revolution, includes the construction of a new state-of-the-art computing center on UB’s campus. The selection of UB for this role underscores the university’s longstanding national and international reputation in AI and data science, which only continues to build, according to UB President Satish K. Tripathi.

“UB has been leveraging AI for the public good for decades—and, in the process, gaining renown as a pioneer of machine learning,” said Tripathi. “Today, UB stands at the center of AI research and responsible application.”

Growth is apparent on all fronts. Enrollment in the university’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences has shot up by 46% over the past decade, with the school’s Master of Science program concentrated in AI in particular gaining head-turning momentum. Launched in the spring of 2020 with just five students, the program welcomed a cohort of 73 this fall, with another 50 students to start this coming spring. The university is also drawing top teaching talent, following a two-year hiring initiative that substantially grew tenured and tenure-track faculty in specific areas of societal importance and university strength—including AI.

UB is top among all New York universities and colleges in receiving support from the National Science Foundation’s Office of Advanced Cyberinfrastructure, the federal government’s primary vehicle for establishing state-of-the-art computing infrastructure at U.S. colleges and universities.

Last year, UB was awarded a highly competitive $20 million grant from the NSF and the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) at the U.S. Department of Education to establish the National AI Institute for Exceptional Education, which is developing artificial intelligence systems to diagnose and treat young children with speech and language processing challenges. The institute’s research team comprises dozens of investigators from nine universities who specialize in artificial intelligence, natural language processing, social robotics, communications, diversity and inclusivity, and other fields.

More recently, UB researchers were awarded a $10 million grant from the IES to establish the Center for Early Literacy and Responsible AI. The center will apply AI to transform early literacy instruction for culturally and linguistically diverse learners in kindergarten through second-grade classrooms across the nation.

Academia is absolutely the right place for these groundbreaking pursuits, according to Venu Govindaraju, UB vice president for research and economic development, who also co-chairs the SUNY AI Task Force, charged with developing a five-year strategy for harnessing AI in education.

“Traditionally, colleges and universities are at the epicenter of life-changing research and ideas,” said Govindaraju. “The University at Buffalo is pushing the boundaries of artificial intelligence and data science in fields that are critical to the state’s and nation’s future.”

Notable examples of this include the work of UB’s Center for Information Integrity, where leadership is balanced across both STEM and non-STEM fields to ensure a cross-disciplinary approach to protecting the information ecosystem in the age of AI. The center recently was awarded a $5.75 million grant from the NSF to help older adults spot online scams and disinformation.

Researchers in the UB Media Forensics Lab have launched an open-source, web-based tool that combines several state-of-the-art deepfake-detection algorithms. Supported by the National Science Foundation, the “DeepFake-o-Meter” bridges a critical gap between the public and the research community in the ability to discern fabricated content across the web, essentially democratizing deepfake detection.

“On one hand, artificial intelligence, in the wrong hands, gives rise to manipulation, deception and worse,” noted Tripathi. “In equal measure, this rapidly evolving technology can engender tremendous good.”

Tech giants and other private ventures are able to invest massive resources to make advances toward their own ends. But there is a need, and a benefit, in having UB—a leading public research university and the flagship of its state system—forge ahead with its own contributions. It’s the best way to ensure that as new technologies transform the world, they do so for the better.