As artificial intelligence moves beyond controlled settings and into dynamic, uncertain and socially complex environments, new questions arise about how these systems understand their surroundings, act autonomously, and interact with people. Rather than concentrating intelligence in a single complex system, the four-year EIC Pathfinder project EMERGE took a different approach. It considered the simplest possible artificial agents, such as small robots in a swarm, components of a robotic body, or connected devices. Individually, each unit may possess limited intelligence and information. Together, however, from their interactions, sharing information and coordinating their behaviour, they can establish a representation of shared existence, environment and goals, which the project calls collaborative awareness.

SafeSeal is an AI-driven watermarking technology designed to protect large language model (LLM) outputs from unauthorized use while preserving text quality and readability. The system embeds detectable watermarks through context-aware synonym substitutions while using named entity recognition to preserve critical information and maintain semantic integrity. Performance testing demonstrated a BERTScore of 0.981, an entity similarity score of 0.962, and a watermark detection rate of 95.1%, indicating strong content fidelity and reliable verification. Potential applications include intellectual property protection, AI content authentication, compliance, and secure deployment of commercial LLMs. The patent-pending technology is at TRL 3 and available for licensing.

GrantsMate is an AI-powered research support platform developed at the University at Albany that streamlines key research activities by integrating funding discovery, collaborator identification, and institutional policy guidance into a single system. Using machine learning, natural language processing, retrieval-augmented generation, and vector databases, the platform delivers personalized, context-aware recommendations through a conversational interface. Its modular architecture supports both cloud and on-premises deployment, allowing institutions to tailor the system to their needs. By reducing inefficiencies created by fragmented research support tools, GrantsMate helps researchers identify funding opportunities, build collaborations, and navigate administrative requirements more effectively. The patent-pending technology is at TRL 3 and available for licensing.