A recent Newsday article highlights the launch of New York's Empire AI Consortium, which aims to leverage artificial intelligence to tackle societal challenges such as climate change, cybersecurity, and hunger. The initiative is supported by over $400 million in funding from both government and private sectors. A key component of this effort is a $7 million supercomputer donated by the Simons Foundation, established by the late James Harris Simons, a former mathematics department chair at Stony Brook University and founder of Renaissance Technologies. The supercomputer will be housed at the University at Buffalo, serving as a central hub for AI research. Stony Brook University is actively involved in the consortium, with Professor Robert Harrison, founding director of the Institute for Advanced Computational Science, appointed as the interim director of Empire AI. This collaboration underscores New York's commitment to advancing AI-driven scientific discovery and technological innovation.