Pittsburgh could lead the world’s fourth industrial revolution — if silos don’t hold it back

As companies embed artificial intelligence into daily life, ethical, environmental and security concerns loom large. 

Integral to answering some of those big AI questions will be Pittsburgh, already well on its way to becoming the center of a burgeoning AI hub, local leaders and innovators said at the AI Horizons Pittsburgh Summit in Bakery Square on Monday.  

Historically a center for steel production, Pittsburgh now aims to lead in the fourth industrial revolution through AI, robotics and advanced manufacturing. That means coming up with thoughtful regulation, collaborative efforts and other tools that address AI’s most pressing issues. But it all hinges on private, public and academic sectors coming together to make this happen, leaders at the event said. 

With Pittsburgh at the center, the effort to integrate and shape laws around the tech extends throughout Pennsylvania, too, though, Gov. Josh Shapiro said at the event. For example, Shapiro signed an executive order last year to create a governing board to guide the commonwealth’s use of generative AI. 

“I can’t wait for the future, and the future, I know, is going to run right through Pittsburgh,” Shapiro, a strong proponent of AI in the public sector, said during the opening panel.

Earlier this year, Pennsylvania became the first state to partner with OpenAI when Shapiro announced a 12-month pilot program allowing government employees to use a cybersecurity-enhanced version of ChatGPT. It has already saved participants an average of 105 minutes per day, according to the Commonwealth’s initial findings. 

A full report on the pilot program will be released to the public in the next two months, according to Shapiro, and the Commonwealth may look to expand the program after. 

“The work we’re doing in state government complements the incredible work that’s being done at research institutions and here in Pittsburgh,” Shapiro said. 

Companies take a prominent role in moving AI adoption ahead

While the public sector embraces AI tools cautiously, the private sector can take a bolder approach, as companies showed off at the summit.

For example, global financial services firm BNY recently launched Eliza, an enterprise AI platform available to 52,000 employees at the company. 

“There’s some people who still think it’s a lot of hype,” Michael Keslar, divisional CIO and president of BNY Pennsylvania, told Technical.ly. “We’re not in that camp.” 

BNY already has 20 different applications in production, many of which were built by teams in Pittsburgh, said Chris Martin, senior director of the AI Hub at BNY. Some of the applications include automating market analysis reports and helping clients predict failed trades. 

National firms without a local HQ, like Nvidia, are also committing to Pittsburgh for AI developments. Nvidia announced last week it would establish its first “AI Tech Community” in Pittsburgh. 

Anthony Robbins, Nvidia vice president, federal, signed a memorandum committing to the initiative alongside Shapiro, University of Pittsburgh Chancellor Joan Gabel and Carnegie Mellon University President Farnam Jahanian.

Nvidia did not give any more details on financial investment into the partnership, possible product development efforts, specifics on the research project, length of the partnership or what it means for Nvidia’s physical presence in the city.

“Pittsburgh is on the map,” Shapiro said, following the memorandum. “Pennsylvania is the center of this research and innovation, and we are profoundly grateful to Nvidia for investing here and showing the rest of the country what we already know about Pittsburgh.” 

Shapiro plans to sign bill regulating deepfake technology

Despite the enthusiasm around generative AI, leaders expressed concerns about its potential for mistreatment, including ethical issues like deepfakes.

“[AI] can be used to cause great harm,” said Andrew Moore, CEO of Pittsburgh-based company Lovelace AI, during the summit. “It could be used successfully to suppress all populations, to come up with new and really ingenious ways to deteriorate the human condition.” 

That was on full display in a trailer for veteran tech journalist Laurie Segall’s movie about the growing pervasiveness of nonconsensual AI-generated explicit content. 

The adoption of laws addressing nonconsenual deepfakes has been inconsistent across the country. However, Pennsylvania’s state legislature recently passed a bill to outlaw the distribution of pornographic deepfakes. Shapiro said he intends to sign the bill into law this week. 

“It shouldn’t take Taylor Swift being deepfaked in a sexually explicit way to get lawmakers to pay attention,” Segall said, referencing deepfake images of the pop star that went viral earlier this year and sparked a national bipartisan discussion to ban such images. 

Pennsylvania looks for ways to address AI energy consumption

AI’s massive data processing requires a lot of power, leading to emerging energy needs in the tech sector.

To compensate, Pennsylvania could be the location of up to a dozen data centers over the next five to seven years and could need hundreds of megawatts per day, according to Brian Regli, executive director of critical investments for the governor’s office.

For example, the average ChatGPT query needs nearly 10 times as much electricity compared to a Google search and data centers’ demand for power will grow by 160% by 2030, according to research from Goldman Sachs released in May. 

“What we need is for the utilities and the infrastructure providers and the chip makers to work more cooperatively,” said Peter Panfil, vice president of global power at data center infrastructure company Vertiv. 

Making any progress, though, will rely on collaboration, according to Lance Lindauer, executive director of the nonprofit Partnership to Advance Responsible Technology.

“No single person, no entity, no single country, is going to solve a lot of these questions on their own or in a vacuum,” Lindauer said. “The way that we’re going to be able to push this topic forward is going to be by coming together in more collaborative spaces like this and like many others that still haven’t even occurred yet.”