UGA joins NextGenAI consortium to accelerate AI innovation, education

Athens, Ga. – 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 AI applications 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.”

"The School of Computing provides much of the disciplinary strength at the core of AI and also contributes to interdisciplinary efforts throughout the campus.’’ said Gagan Agrawal, Director of the School of Computing "The School is delighted at this development."

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.  “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.”

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 (which closely collaborates with the School of Computing) serves as a hub for cross-cutting AI and data science research and academic programs.

UGA researchers are leveraging AI to solve 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. School of Computing faculty members Dr. Tianming Liu and Dr. Ninghao Liu are part of this effort.