At its second annual symposium on Friday, Sept. 12, 2025, the University of Utah One-U Responsible Artificial Intelligence Initiative (One-U RAI) showcased how it’s raising the state’s profile in ethical innovation by forging cross-sector partnerships, boosting regional infrastructure, and supporting researchers using AI to improve lives—to diagnose rare diseases in children, restore water to the Great Salt Lake, help middle schoolers learn math, and more.

“You all are the frontier of this work in this state and at this great university,” Provost Mitzi Montoya told a crowd of 260 people from academia, industry, government, and the greater community at the University Guest House and Conference Center. “We’re poised to lead the way thanks to your expertise and your willingness to come together and work across boundaries, which is a strength and a hallmark both of this state and certainly of the University of Utah. One might say that you all are the new fourth node.”

The symposium served as a platform for faculty and staff affiliated with One-U RAI to share research and tools across the initiative’s three thematic areas: health care and wellness, environment, and teaching and learning—read an overview of lightning talks below.

In addition to funding high-impact AI researchers at the U, the $100 million One-U RAI—launched by President Taylor Randall in October 2023 and run by the Scientific Computing and Imaging (SCI) Institute—is bringing state-of-the-art cyberinfrastructure to the region, including updates to the U’s Center for High Performance Computing. It’s also helping to unite the broader state community around responsible AI—its volunteer-driven Community Consortium, for example, used the symposium to launch an AI Leadership Blueprint that helps organizations of all sizes responsibly adopt AI.

Such statewide efforts and One-U RAI’s role in them were central to symposium discussions.

Keynote speaker Margaret Busse, executive director of the Utah Department of Commerce, said the state has already demonstrated significant leadership in AI. At least two independent reports agree: Brainly and DesignRush recently gave Utah top rankings for AI readiness based on factors such as AI adoption, jobs, education, and funding.

Utah, Busse said, was one of the first states to set up an Office of AI Policy, which is identifying policy needs that balance innovation with individual protections. The state, she added, is also working toward a “connected AI ecosystem” where academic institutions can quickly respond to workforce needs—including, for instance, through a statewide workforce development partnership with NVIDIA, which One-U RAI leaders helped to secure.

These early actions, Busse explained, position Utah to define what the future looks like for AI. “We always like to say that we punch above our weight,” she said. “In this particular emerging technology of artificial intelligence, we are doing so tremendously—I think it becomes, actually, an understatement.”

And One-U RAI, Busse said, is exactly what the state needs: “It embodies the greatness of Utah.”

During a panel examining what One-U RAI and similar efforts should achieve going forward, university, state, and industry leaders underscored the need to proactively shape AI and ensure policies and technologies are pro-human—from preventing labor displacement to incentivizing data-sharing to developing success metrics.

“There is no going back to a time where AI didn’t exist,” said panelist Rebekah Cummings, Digital Matters director at the Marriott Library. “So, there is that inevitability, but I don’t think we have to be fatalistic about what that future looks like.” Paired with smart policy, grant programs and public-private partnerships led by One-U RAI and others can ensure AI helps people rather than exploits them.

Manish Parashar, chief AI officer for the U and the director of the SCI Institute and One-U RAI, also emphasized the need for collective action in leveraging AI to solve the region’s biggest challenges. From day one of the initiative, Parashar and university leaders wanted its scope to reach beyond the university: “We have to move far here, and to do that, we have to do it together.”

How to get involved with the One-U Responsible AI Initiative

One-U RAI’s 2025 symposium was sponsored by CiscoAmplify | SIGuardrail Technologies, and the Utah Office of AI Policy. View the event page for more information.

Overview of symposium lightning talks