“Today, Pittsburgh is the center of the universe,” Governor Josh Shapiro said in front of a sold out auditorium in Bakery Square.
Shapiro, NVIDIA Vice President Anthony Robbins, President Farnam Jahanian of Carnegie Mellon University and University of Pittsburgh Chancellor Joan Gabel all signed a commemorative certificate to officially launch Pittsburgh as a “NVIDIA AI Tech Community”.
As part of the initiative, technology centers will be established at Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh. The centers are envisioned as “a bridge for academia, industry and public-sector groups to partner on artificial intelligence innovation,” according to a NVIDIA statement.
CMU’s center will focus on robotics, autonomy and AI using NVIDIA’s latest technology to develop new ideas in the fields of AI and robotics; Pitt’s center will be aimed at innovating computational development across the health sciences, including how to use AI in clinical medicine and biomanufacturing.
NVIDIA will provide CMU and Pitt with computing chips, AI and graphics software as well as a slate of other software for robotics learning and custom generative AI.
Representatives from Pittsburgh-based AI start-ups, including Jeremy McHugh, the CEO of AI data security company Preamble, said NVIDIA’s tech support will help enhance speed and scalability of work that’s ongoing in the region.
“Having access to the cutting-edge research, the hardware and infrastructure capabilities that power these generative models and obviously all the great work that's being done by Carnegie Mellon or NVIDIA, gives us access and opportunities that may not otherwise be present here.” McHugh said.
When asked about the energy needed to fuel AI data centers, Shapiro said he’s an “all-of-the-above energy governor.”
“I think nuclear is an important part of that,” he said, responding to questions about possible plans to reopen Three Mile Island to power Microsoft’s AI needs, “as is natural gas, as are renewables, wind and solar and other things. We have to make sure that we can compete. And one of the most important tools you need to compete is energy. Pennsylvania is uniquely poised to harness the energy we have.”
Other speakers at the announcement like Andrew Moore, CEO of Lovelace AI and former dean of the Carnegie Mellon University School of Computer Science, made efforts to delineate differences between Pittsburgh and tech hubs like Silicon Valley, saying the city has a unique history of innovation that both cares about profits but is also committed to supporting the public good.
“This is the place which I trust to be sober-minded and incredibly creative when it comes to both using artificial intelligence to make the world safer and preventing other people from using artificial intelligence to evil,” Moore said.
Governor Shapiro participated in a panel discussion alongside CMU President Farnam Jahanian and Cris Turner, the Global Head of Knowledge & Information Products, Government Affairs & Public Policy at Google. The panel was moderated by Laurie Segall, CEO of Mostly Human Media and a former CNN Tech Correspondent who has written extensively about AI.
Shapiro pledged to sign PA Senate Bill 1213 into law later this week, legislation that outlaws distribution of AI-generated deepfake pornographic material — what Segall has described as “one of the most significant threats we face with advances in AI.”
Shapiro also highlighted ongoing applications of AI software within state government, including the state’s department of transportation, saying technological developments have allowed more time to address the concerns of state residents.
“On average every single day they are saving 105 minutes. They have 105 more minutes in their day to deal with the really complex challenges that a fellow Pennsylvanian might approach our state government with.”
Shapiro said development of the AI community in Pittsburgh stands to make the state nationally competitive in the tech industry, pointing to recent discussions with Tesla CEO Elon Musk about potential opportunities for future collaboration.
“I feel as though it is my mission to make sure that if you have these big dreams, if you have these capabilities, if you want to be a part of the next big thing, you shouldn't have to leave the zip code that you love in order to go somewhere else to find it,” Shapiro said.
While the event was a celebratory occasion for industry leaders, some attendees were skeptical and called for attention to promoting equity in the developing AI economy.
Jamal Davis, who volunteers with the Pittsburgh-based nonprofit Black Tech Nation, said work is needed to create equitable training and career pipelines for historically disenfranchised populations.
“To think you can wave a wand and fix everything, I don't think is realistic,” Davis said. “This is a city where there's been a lot of redlining done. A lot of gentrification has happened. So to think you can wave an AI-wand over that and fix that I don't think is realistic.
"I think there will need to be funding programs put in place so that people from underserved communities — especially the Black community — can have access to some of these jobs and also establish different types of career pipelines,” he added.
