SAS to launch AI think tank at N.C. State

SAS to launch AI think tank at N.C. State

SAS Institute, the multibillion-dollar analytics company born in the labs of N.C. State, will help launch a new AI think tank at the university, its CEO Jim Goodnight said Thursday.

Why it matters: The partnership aims to improve health outcomes and agricultural practices and to create safety frameworks around the use of AI in those areas.

  • SAS' analytical model was originally created at N.C. State to find a better way to analyze agricultural data. Since then, it has evolved into creating analytics software for myriad industries and in recent years has invested heavily in new AI capabilities.

    • What they're saying: "The next generation of innovators will need more than powerful technology. They'll need the judgment to use it responsibly," Goodnight said in a statement. "By connecting NC State's interdisciplinary research with SAS' data, AI and industry expertise, we can help students and researchers build trusted approaches to problems that matter."

    Zoom in: One of the first efforts the think tank will focus on is how to use AI to better predict how diseases and treatments for those diseases behave in humans.

  • Researchers at N.C. State hope to sync studies in living organisms with advanced lab studies looking at small versions of organs grown from cells.
  • The hope is that creating better predictive models in these settings will help scientists discover therapies faster and at a lower cost.

    • Yes, but: Conventional AI models can struggle in the current environment because the small-organ models come from a relatively small set of biological subjects, according to SAS, leading to analysis that can struggle to hold up across studies or from one biological system to another.

  • The SAS-N.C. State think tank hopes to create new analytical systems to account for these challenges.

    • What's next: The think tank is designed as a two-year pilot, with the goal of creating a new analytical model that can be used broadly at other universities or companies.