Photo credit: Jack Myer.
The Center for Generative AI, powered by a new GPU computing cluster, is among the largest in academia. The cluster will comprise 600 NVIDIA H100 GPUs (graphics processing units), specialized devices to enable rapid mathematical computations, making them ideal for training AI models.
The Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) will host and support the cluster, called Vista.
“Artificial intelligence is fundamentally changing our world, and this investment comes at the right time to help UT shape the future through our teaching and research,” said President Jay Hartzell in a UT News story. “World-class computing power combined with our breadth of AI research expertise will uniquely position UT to speed advances in health care, drug development, materials and other industries that could have a profound impact on people and society.”
The growth of ChatGPT and similar generative AI technologies has put pressure on many industry groups, health-care organizations and public agencies to work with academic institutions to harness AI for innovation. Experts from the center will collaborate with external partners to develop and apply generative AI solutions to challenging problems across industries.
With a core focus on biosciences, health care, computer vision and natural language processing (NLP), the new center will be housed in UT’s interdisciplinary Machine Learning Laboratory and co-led by the Cockrell School of Engineering and the College of Natural Sciences. It also includes faculty members and support from Dell Medical School and researchers from the School of Information and McCombs School of Business.
“We believe academia should continue to play a leading role in the development of AI,” said Alex Dimakis, director of the center. He is a professor of electrical and computer engineering. “Open-source models, open data sets and interdisciplinary peer-reviewed research is the safest way to drive the upcoming AI revolution. Universities are uniquely suited to shape this ecosystem, and we are excited to be on the frontier of generative AI here in Austin.”
*This story first appeared in UT News.
