Background

The 2023-launched $100 million One-U Responsible Artificial Intelligence Initiative (One-U RAI) is led by the University of Utah Scientific Computing and Imaging (SCI) Institute as part of a concerted effort to conduct research at the U that improves the lives of Utah’s 3.4 million residents. One-U RAI leaders envision a reality where AI is responsibly leveraged to address critical local, regional, and global challenges and benefit humanity.

AI is a transformative technology driving innovations, enabling discoveries, and spurring economic growth, and it's impacting everything from routine daily tasks and services to societal-level grand challenges. AI can also have negative social, environmental, and even economic consequences. To realize the positive and transformative potential of AI, it is imperative to advance AI and its applications responsibly, i.e., in a way that achieves societal good while also protecting privacy, civil rights, and civil liberties, and promotes principles of fairness, accountability, and transparency.

One-U RAI aims to catalyze transdisciplinary excellence in responsible AI at the U by bringing together the use-inspired/applied AI research and technological expertise, advanced cyberinfrastructure, and translational workforce needed to position the U as a regional and national leader.

The initiative exists in coordination with other AI efforts at the U. It includes a university-wide executive committee and working groups and a dedicated program office housed at SCI. It's also guided by external and internal advisory committees.