JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Bringing synthetic intelligence to Jacksonville is likely one of the targets of a proposed $200 million College of Florida graduate faculty that will deal with innovating packages in medication, enterprise and engineering.
“Society must be ready for disruption, for modifications within the office,” mentioned Joe Glover, who’s the provost and senior vice chairman of educational affairs at UF. “Jobs that was executed by individuals could also be executed sooner or later by robots, or by another means ruled by AI.”
UF is pushing to be the nation’s first “AI college” by making it part of each pupil’s schooling and boasting one of many world’s quickest supercomputers.
“We are able to anticipate our lives to alter,” Glover mentioned.
He mentioned the AI revolution shall be at the very least as impactful as the non-public pc revolution.
“Whenever you go to see the physician, it’ll depend on this software. Whenever you go to construct a automotive or drive a automotive, it’s going to depend on this software. Whenever you rise up within the morning and go into the kitchen to order your groceries, prepare dinner your meal — it’s going to all depend on this software,” Glover mentioned.
UF analysis computing director Erik Deumens mentioned if AI is efficient, you don’t even discover it’s there.
“The best functioning of AI will simply make sure issues that we wish to have occur,” Deumens mentioned.
It appears like magic, however behind it’s a advanced internet of supercomputers that may course of huge quantities of knowledge.
Amongst these supercomputers is UF’s HiPerGator in Gainesville. It’s hundreds of occasions extra highly effective than a laptop computer, consisting of 5,000 sq. toes of computing energy with 10 miles of fiber optic cable, Deumens mentioned.
HiPerGator has been increasing on the college over the previous decade, helped by a $50 million donation in 2019 from UF alum Chris Malachowsky and his Silicon Valley firm NVIDIA.
“He simply got here down the hallway to me in the future and mentioned, ‘What would you do with an AI supercomputer if I gave it to you?’” Glover mentioned.
The provost’s split-second response? Making AI coaching out there to each pupil in each main at each stage.
“It turned out to be a solution that he favored,” Glover mentioned. “We’re completely distinctive in doing this. No different college in the US is doing this but.”
Earlier than News4JAX’s crew may enter HiPerGator’s chamber, we needed to placed on headphones with built-in walkie-talkies to speak over the sound of the air flow system.
The warmth generated by {hardware} requires high-powered cooling followers. It will probably get as loud as a jet engine. Deumens mentioned HiPerGator’s electrical energy invoice prices about $3.5 million a 12 months.
Deumans defined that researchers feed huge quantities of data into two storage methods. Cables transport the information all through the supercomputer, the place algorithms analyze it sooner than individuals may. Researchers are utilizing the supercomputer’s AI expertise to develop instruments to foretell sea stage rise, develop crops extra effectively, and even enhance well being care outcomes.
Engineers fed in 10 years of anonymized medical notes from sufferers at UF Well being right into a mannequin known as “GatorTron.” The purpose is to make use of that info to provide docs an additional layer of perception into potential affected person outcomes and rapidly determine sufferers who may qualify to take part in scientific trials.
Jacksonville may quickly be on the intersection of AI and medication. The town has permitted as much as $50 million, and the state of Florida has put aside one other $75 million for a UF Well being and Monetary Know-how Graduate Schooling Middle that will finally help a pupil inhabitants of about 10,000.
Nevertheless, critics are involved concerning the huge price ticket and obscure particulars.
“I used to be simply apprehensive that the taxpayers are being burdened with it. There’s loads of issues that we’ve made exceptions for. We don’t actually have a location, we don’t have if it’s going to be a campus or if it’s going to be a middle, there’s simply loads of ifs,” Metropolis Councilman Al Ferraro informed News4JAX in March. He was the only “no” vote on the primary spherical of funding.
Proponents say it might propel financial growth in Jacksonville and assist the nation.
“The Nationwide Safety Fee on AI recognized one of many actual threats to America being that we aren’t constructing an AI workforce on the identical fee as our competitor nations. That’s each a nationwide safety risk and an financial safety risk. However that report didn’t have any technique to truly construct that workforce,” Glover mentioned.
He mentioned what they’re doing on the College of Florida may function a mannequin for the nation to construct that AI workforce.
It’s not but clear the place in Jacksonville a UF graduate faculty campus may go, however Jaguars proprietor Shad Khan desires it to be constructed on the present location of the Jacksonville Fairgrounds close to TIAA Financial institution Area. He’s pledged to donate the 14 acres of the fairgrounds for the campus if UF chooses to place the venture there.