The One-U Responsible Artificial Intelligence Initiative celebrated three years of milestones at its third annual symposium, which included the launch of Redtail, a new statewide resource for research, education, and pro-human AI. The event, held Oct. 6, featured leaders from university, state, and industry sectors discussing the initiative's progress and its mission to expand AI-ready cyberinfrastructure.
Redtail is a new world-class AI factory supercomputer designed to serve all of Utah. According to Manish Parashar, chief AI officer for the U and executive director of the Scientific Computing and Imaging (SCI) Institute, the project was made possible through a public-private partnership involving the state, the University of Utah, philanthropic funding from the Huntsman Family Foundation and individuals Brynn Ballard and Peter Huntsman, and technology from HPE and NVIDIA. The system will be managed by the University of Utah's Center for High Performance Computing, part of the SCI Institute. While initially focused on higher education, the resource will eventually reach government entities, K–12 public schools, and industry.
The Redtail system utilizes architecture similar to companies such as OpenAI and Anthropic to maximize speed, efficiency, and parallel processing. Bill Miller, university senior director for research computing and data, noted the system ranks No. 159 for speed, No. 76 for efficiency, and No. 5 among U.S. public universities. To ensure statewide access, the Utah Education and Telehealth Network collaborated to provide high-speed connectivity to users across the state. The first 21 Redtail projects, which include research in fields ranging from environmental forecasting to disease diagnosis, were announced leading up to the symposium.
Since its 2023 launch, the One-U RAI has supported more than 60 researchers and students using AI to solve real-world problems. The initiative has hosted dozens of events and invested in cyberinfrastructure as a public good. In the past year, the initiative awarded 12 new faculty fellows and seven postdoctoral fellows, and it plans to welcome 13 new fellows in 2027.
Utah Department of Commerce Commissioner Margaret Wooley Busse stated that Redtail is foundational to the state's Pro-Human AI Initiative, serving as a tool for upskilling the workforce and solving local and global problems, such as protecting the Great Salt Lake or treating diseases. Huntsman Cancer Institute CEO Bradley Cairns added that Redtail will enable a new era in cancer genetics by helping researchers identify new treatments and detect cancer earlier.
