Hochul gets update on UB's AI programs

Gov. Kathy Hochul visited UB on Saturday to receive an update on the university’s programs to advance artificial intelligence for the public good.

She met with UB leadership, faculty and students while touring the National AI Institute for Exceptional Education and the UB Institute for Artificial Intelligence and Data Science, both in Lockwood Library.

Hochul met with UB researchers who are using Empire AI, the state’s more than $500 million research consortium and supercomputing center, located at UB. Researchers explained how the powerful computer is allowing them to pursue technology that aims to speed up development of new pharmaceuticals, as well as their efforts to personalize large language models to develop augmentative and alternate communication devices used by people with ALS and other motor neuron diseases.

Hochul also learned about UB’s work with socially assistive robots and received a tour from Yubie, a robot dog that UB researchers are using to advance computer science, AI and other fields.