iTWire - Cognizant unveils advanced Artificial Intelligence Lab to ‘accelerate A...

Friday, 08 March 2024 12:24

Cognizant unveils advanced Artificial Intelligence Lab to ‘accelerate AI research and innovation’ Featured

By Gordon Peters

Cognizant CEO Ravi Kumar S

Global technology company Cognizant has launched an Advanced Artificial Intelligence (AI) Lab based in San Francisco, which will focus on “advancing the science and practice of AI ” through innovation and development of intellectual property and AI-enablement technologies.

Staffed by a team of researchers and developers, including AI pioneers and PhDs, Cognizant says the lab will collaborate with research institutions, customers, and startups and already has 75 issued and pending patents that provide a differentiated foundation on which to build cutting edge AI solutions.

Cognizant says the lab is part of the commitment announced last year to invest $1 billion in generative AI (gen AI) over the next three years.

According to Cognizant, the launch of its Advanced AI Lab comes at a time when enterprises are rapidly working to understand the impact of AI and meet expanding expectations around its promise - and recent research has shown more than half (66 percent) of executives are ambivalent or dissatisfied with their company’s progress on AI and gen AI, and most executives (85 percent) plan to increase spending on AI and gen AI in 2024.

Longer term, Cognizant and Oxford Economics’ recent study found gen AI could inject up to $1 trillion to the U.S. economy by 2032.

“As AI rapidly evolves into mainstream use, Cognizant is continually pushing boundaries through strategic partnerships, training programs and platform investments to be an AI-first company,” said Cognizant CEO Ravi Kumar S.

“With the launch of Cognizant’s Advanced AI Lab, we’re progressing this effort by investing in state-of-the-art core AI research that establishes our position at the forefront of innovation and our industry. Because we own the client solutioning relationship from end to end, we have a unique line of sight into businesses, industries, and their AI needs. We’re putting dedicated focus on AI research and development to lay the groundwork for better business outcomes and a better future.”

Cognizant says that by harnessing the power of Large Language Models (LLMs) as capable knowledge workers, the lab’s researchers and developers will use the Cognizant Neuro AI platform to orchestrate LLMs into decision-making AI systems that can positively impact and optimize business outcomes.

“Moving beyond simple prompt engineering and fine-tuning, these customized AI applications will be designed to support higher value outcomes -- from strategic board-level business decisions to enterprise operations including financial, sales, product, and IT support, to day-to-day productivity of individual employees.”

“Cognizant’s Advanced AI Lab is an important partner for us in the research community, and we’ve been fast at work with them already working on simulating brain dynamics in healthy and patient populations,” said Dr. Manish Saggar, Assistant Professor and Director of Brain Dynamics Lab at Stanford University School of Medicine. “I’m excited about the progress we’re making together, as well as its potential impact on not only advancing science but also for developing novel interventions for mental health disorders.”

Specifically, Cognizant’s Advanced AI Lab will focus on the following areas:

• Researching, designing, evaluating, building, and showcasing innovative AI solutions for business productivity and decision making across various domains
• Collaborating with external stakeholders, including research institutions, customers, and startups, and engaging in AI-for-good research projectsEvangelizing gen AI-
• enabled decision-making solutions globally, and strengthening Cognizant as a knowledge hub for published, peer-reviewed research on AI
• Partnering across Cognizant’s business lines and practices to train and upskill associates on new AI solutions as they become available through the Cognizant Neuro™ AI platform.
• Fostering an environment of continuous learning, innovation, and knowledge sharing

The lab will be led by AI entrepreneur and inventor, Babak Hodjat, with AI research activities under the supervision of University of Texas at Austin AI Professor and neuroevolution pioneer, Risto Miikkulainen. In just the last year, their team of researchers and developers have already published 14 papers in academic venues, and they received the Best Pathway to Impact Award at the NeurIPS 2023 Climate Change Workshop for the paper, Discovering Effective Policies for Land-Use Planning.

Cognizant says that in addition to the launch of its Advanced AI Lab, it is supporting enterprise AI adoption through its AI Innovation Studios in London, New York, San Francisco, Dallas, and Bengaluru, with these studios serving as “inspiration and co-innovation spaces that bring clients and associates together to identify and collaborate on new business solutions”.

"Cognizant is dedicated to maintaining the highest standards for responsible and ethical AI, focusing on safety, security, privacy, transparency, and inclusion."

For additional details on Cognizant's approach to gen AI and the company's commitment to responsible AI, visit here.

“Cognizant also develops research and insights that help leaders make informed decisions to fuel their companies’ success. In partnership with Oxford Economics, Cognizant recently published a study on the economic impact of AI, “New World, New Work,” and intends to release further research on AI’s impact on productivity, tasks, skills, jobs and occupations.” 

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