With the launch of a new AI institute and access to New York’s most powerful research supercomputer, Binghamton University is set to redefine how AI serves the public, tackling everything from hate speech online to climate change and assistive tech.
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Thanks to funding from New York state, Binghamton University, State University of New York, will establish an Institute for AI and Society that taps into the power of Empire AI, the country's most powerful academic research computer.
Gov. Kathy Hochul has announced a new program providing $5 million to eight SUNY campuses, including Binghamton, to engage diverse disciplines and communities, broaden AI development to prepare students for the future, and advance the use of AI for the public good.
"The progression of AI research in New York state is going to inspire other states to follow our path," Hochul said. "Investing in AI within the SUNY system is an investment in our students to expand their knowledge about what the future will bring. We are not just preparing students for AI – we're shaping how AI serves society, ensuring it strengthens communities and our economy."
Other SUNY schools receiving funding are the University at Albany, the University at Buffalo, SUNY Downstate, SUNY ESF, SUNY Polytechnic Institute, Stony Brook University, and Upstate Medical University.
Binghamton University is researching large language models and antisemitism on social media to detect hateful content. Another project creates 3D foundation models for high-throughput characterization of metal-organic frameworks for climate-change applications.
"I'm proud to see New York leveraging the power of Binghamton University's expert faculty in striving to make the state a leader in artificial intelligence," said President Harvey Stenger. "The University's researchers are already doing tremendous work in AI. By sharing resources across the state, we're going to solve real-world problems and create new opportunities in economic development and in academic research."
Empire AI is a consortium of public and private universities in New York—CUNY, SUNY, Cornell University, Columbia University, New York University, and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute—building a state-of-the-art artificial intelligence computing center at the University at Buffalo, scheduled to open in 2026.
In October, Empire AI launched Phase Alpha, a smaller but still powerful version of the final supercomputer.
Associate Professor Jeremy Blackburn, who will serve as the director of Binghamton University's Institute for AI and Society, sees AI as a tool to gain a large-scale, quantitative understanding of disinformation, harassment campaigns, extremism, risks to children, and antisemitism. Previous hardware, however, made it impractical to analyze the sheer amount of data his work explores.
"My research can now be done at a speed I would have never had access to before," said Blackburn, a Thomas J. Watson College of Engineering and Applied Science's School of Computing faculty member.
"Previously, it would take nearly 20 years to run our experiments on even a sample of the billions of social media data points we collect yearly. By pooling resources from New York state and the six member universities to build something more powerful, I can complete my research on online antisemitism in a matter of weeks. It is hard to overstate just how much more this increase in computing power will allow me to accomplish."
The Alpha computer is already running at maximum capacity, with 85 projects and more than 250 researchers across the state using it to work for the public good. Other research at Binghamton includes protecting power systems from malicious attacks and developing a robotic seeing-eye dog for the visually impaired.
"Empire AI will also open unique doors for collaboration between disciplines," Blackburn said. "Scientists and faculty in the humanities and the arts will have expanded access to computing power that was previously unavailable to public research institutions. This coalition will open doors to scholars, especially to those in public universities dedicated to establishing New York state as a leader in AI."