Columbia's Jeannette Wing and Cornell Tech's Greg Morrisett will serve as interim co-directors of the New York Center for AI Responsibility and Research at Binghamton University, bringing together more than 80 researchers to advance AI safety and security.
By Hermes Vector
Jeannette Wing, Columbia University's executive vice president for research, has been named interim co-director of the New York Center for AI Responsibility and Research, a statewide effort to advance artificial intelligence security and safety. She will lead the center alongside Greg Morrisett, dean and vice provost of Cornell Tech. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul announced their appointments on Nov. 10.
The center is based at the State University of New York's Binghamton University. It will bring together more than 80 researchers at colleges and research institutions across New York state. Researchers will work from their home institutions and use computing resources provided by Empire AI, the state's public-private research initiative.
The center will independently evaluate advanced AI systems, develop new approaches to testing their safety and security, and advance the science needed to keep pace with rapidly evolving AI capabilities. It will evaluate the safety of today's AI systems while developing the scientific tools, measurements and standards needed to assess increasingly powerful systems as the technology evolves.
The center was announced in early 2026 with a $30 million philanthropic gift from a group of donors led by Binghamton alumnus and Bloomberg LP co-founder Tom Secunda, paired with an initial $25 million investment from SUNY and operating capital from New York state. The initiative will be supported by the advanced computing resources of Empire AI, New York's $500 million public-private initiative to advance AI research for the public good.
"As AI systems become more autonomous, we need to develop better scientific approaches to ensure they do no harm. We need to anticipate brand new kinds of failures, vulnerabilities, and attacks, and then prevent, detect, and recover from them," said Wing.
"While the federal government fails to act, New York is leading the way on AI safety and holding big tech accountable," Hochul said. "The stakes are too high to simply take AI companies at their word. That's why we are bringing together our world-class researchers and the computing power of Empire AI to independently test powerful AI systems, understand their risks and put that knowledge to work protecting New Yorkers."
The center's findings will help inform public policy and oversight of frontier AI developers, building on New York's recently enacted RAISE Act, which establishes safety, transparency and reporting requirements for large AI developers. Under the RAISE Act, large developers of advanced AI systems must register with the state and follow safety and reporting rules. A new state office, known as DIGIT, will oversee large AI developers and help enforce the law.
Sources
This article was drafted with AI assistance and checked against the sources above. Company claims are reported as claims. Cover image is AI-generated.
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