There will soon be a new Center for Artificial Intelligence in South Dakota. The new AI teaching location will be established at South Dakota Stare University.
Campus leaders hope the South Dakota State University Center for Artificial Intelligence (AI) Innovation and Emergent Technologies will advance AI literacy and ethical innovation and prepare students for an “AI-driven world.”
SDSU will integrate generative AI literacy and competency initiatives across its course curriculum in a wide range of educational areas, and prepare students to be proficient with AI tools and use them ethically while being mindful of the impact AI has on the state, region and world, SDSU President Barry Dunn said in a press release.
The center will also serve as a hub for interdisciplinary AI-based research groups to tackle pressing challenges in agriculture, climate resilience, rural health and community development, according to a release.
Use of generative AI will continue to require increasing and intense human oversight across industries, and AI won’t replace “the intellectual curiosity that drives a faculty member or the wonder that draws a student into a lab; it elevates and amplifies both,” according to the release from SDSU.
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A press release about the Center states that generative AI’s ability to code, and produce essays and large amounts of information instantly means high-level critical-thinking and problem-solving skills will be honed by SDSU students at the Center.
Funding for this new Center — $750,000 — came from the 2026 Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies bill and was secured by Sen. Mike Rounds, R-South Dakota.
Rounds said in a press release that the center comes at a critical time for AI development in the U.S., and said SDSU leaders know AI is “critical for the future.”
“They’re committed to teaching their students to harness the power of AI rather than run from it,” Rounds said in a release. “I look forward to working with the university to shape the use of AI in South Dakota.”
Executive directors for the center will be Victor Taylor, vice provost for graduate education and extended studies, and Rajesh Kavasseri, professor and associate dean for research.
Taylor said in a release that the Center will produce “generative AI-literate” graduates, which will “affirm South Dakota’s image as a place of technological innovation and growth.”
Kavasseri said in a release that he will build a new operating system for discovery with AI as the “force multiplier, pairing our scientists and thinkers with intelligent systems that shorten the discovery cycle and extend the impact.”
This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: SDSU readies new center for artificial intelligence
