As Pittsburgh hosts one of the nation’s biggest and most talked-about AI summits, Technical.ly is on the scene with all the updates you need to stay in the know.
AI Horizons 2025 features two days of talks about physical AI, and what goes into developing the workforce and infrastructure to support it.
This post is being updated regularly with new insights from AI Horizons and the happenings on AI Avenue.
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➡️ Jump to a day:
• Sept. 10, 2025
• Sept. 11, 2025
• Sept. 12, 2025
Sept. 12, 2025
4:45 p.m.
The high stakes of the AI race
Sen. Dave McCormick is in the building and is about to speak with Pitt Chancellor Joan Gabel.
In many ways, Pennsylvania is declining. But the commonwealth can compete in three ways, McCormick said:
- energy resources
- tech development through research institutions and
- skilled workforce to build energy and tech infrastructure.
Economic and military power are not two separate realms, McCormick said. “The stakes are really high in terms of this race.”
McCormick acknowledges AI is “scary for certain jobs.” He references a recent report from Microsoft that found which occupations AI would be most helpful or disruptive.
McCormick says he will be a staunch defender of public research dollars. Since it is taxpayer dollars, though, there needs to be more proof that it’s an investment with returns, he said.
Looking ahead 24 to 36 months, what does success mean? The brand should be “Pennsylvania is where the action’s at,” McCormick said.
Also, McCormick is thinking about how we mitigate the disruption that’s inevitably coming in energy prices and the job market, as well as ethics. He’s asking questions about what kind of policies should be put in place, but he said that’s more of a federal job than a community job.
— Alice Crow, lead Pittsburgh reporter at Technical.ly
4:15 p.m.
Forge AI Pitch Challenge winner announced
We’re about to learn which PA startup will win $100,000 and a year of free office space in Bakery Square as part of the AI Horizons pitch competition.
Surface Design Solutions won!
Surface Design Solutions is a “physics-informed” machine learning tech startup for the manufacturing industry.
— Alice Crow, lead Pittsburgh reporter at Technical.ly
2:30 p.m.
High AI readiness, low AI use
Now, Mark Muro, Senior Fellow at Brookings Metro, and Rick Siger, Secretary of the PA Dept. of Community and Economic Development, are participating in a special fireside chat about AI deployment.
“Pittsburgh is killing it. That’s the finding,” Muro said. Pittsburgh ranked No. 8 in the nation for AI readiness by Brookings Metro.
But, Pittsburgh ranks low on AI use across major firms.
How does Pittsburgh get to the top three? More firms in the city need to adopt AI, and there needs to be better data infrastructure within major Pittsburgh firms, Muro said.
— Alice Crow, lead Pittsburgh reporter at Technical.ly
1:30 p.m.
Energy leaders ask for more power
We have another discussion on energy coming up. It’s called Powering America’s Future: AI and Energy Storage for National Resilience, featuring:
- (Moderator) Carnegie Mellon University, VP for research — Theresa Mayer
- EOS Energy Enterprises, CEO and founder — Joe Mastrangelo
- Engie North America, Chief Renewables Officer and SVP — Dave Carroll
Carroll and Mastrangelo advocated for more power generation and energy storage.
— Alice Crow, lead Pittsburgh reporter at Technical.ly
11:45 a.m.
How Abridge gained national momentum
Abridge CEO and founder Shiv Rao takes the stage with Redpoint Ventures Managing Director Jacob Effron. The healthtech startup made recent headlines for big raises and opening a San Francisco office.
People think we’re going to automate doctors and nurses. Rao, a cardiologist himself, doesn’t think that’s true. It’s the in-between tasks — like note-taking, which is Abridge’s specialty — where AI can actually help.
Healthcare may have made VCs cautious in the past. Five years ago, Effron said he would’ve been surprised to learn he would be so successful with this type of investment.
“There are not enough people out there for health systems … to employ,” Rao said. That’s why, even though healthcare isn’t always a tech pioneer, there’s an opportunity for more AI implementation.
There are broader ecosystem consequences of Abridge’s success, Effron said. Other Pittsburgh companies can learn key lessons about how to deploy their tech at such a large scale. Rao even said he hopes one day, some of his employees will leave and go on to start their own big things.
Plus, Abridge’s big raises drew a lot of attention to Pittsburgh. Rao would “force” VCs to come to Pittsburgh if they wanted to invest.
“I hope those flights are extra full over the next few years,” Effron said of San Francisco to Pittsburgh investment trends.
— Katie Malone, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and national editor at Technical.ly
Where does AI fit in life sciences?
11:00 a.m.
Now we’ll follow conversations on AI deployment.
The first panel is on AI and biomanufacturing for defense, featuring:
- ElevateBIO, CTO — Michael Paglia
- Bioforge, VP of engineering — Brennan Sellner
- Carnegie Mellon University, dean of College of Science — Barbara Shinn Cunningham
- The National Security Commission on Emerging Biotechnology, senior policy advisor — Steven Moss
- (Moderator) Pittsburgh Life Sciences Alliance, president and CEO — Megan Shaw
Moss and Shaw are discussing this Senate report. What is needed?
Allowing the “best and brightest” to come here, study and work, Cunningham said.
— Alice Crow, lead Pittsburgh reporter at Technical.ly
10:00 a.m.
Gecko Robotics CEO wants to shift the energy discussion
Our next panel is on industrial intelligence, featuring:
- JPMorgan’s managing director and head of applied tech Justin Krauss
- Alcoa’s president and CEO William Oplinger
- Gecko Robotics‘ cofounder and CEO Jake Loosararian
Panelists are discussing why AI companies have such high valuations. Loosararian points to an MIT study that found the majority of AI investments yield no return.
Oplinger keeps mentioning Alcoa’s work in Australia. You can learn more about the pushback to that work here.
Loosararian said he’s nervous about the “over-hype around AI.” Instead of talking about the energy needed for AI, there should be more discussion around how AI can be used to generate more energy, he said.
The companies that own the raw materials and data will be the most valuable, Loosararian said, and Oplinger agreed.
Pittsburgh can’t call itself an AI city without having more success stories, more big winners, more return on investment, according to Loosararian.
— Alice Crow, lead Pittsburgh reporter at Technical.ly
9:00 a.m.
Skild AI’s plans for deployment
I’m amped to hear from Skild AI cofounders, Abhinav Gupta and Deepak Pathak, today. Read about the company’s latest work as you get settled to tune in. Martial Hebert, dean of the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University, will be moderating.
Hebert is giving us a crash course in robotics history to show how much has gone into much of the innovation we’re seeing at the summit.
Mostly product demo (video not IRL) from Pathak on stage. See it yourself here.
Their videos show a ton of use cases but “we can not give exact guarantees,” Pathak said, on AI safety.
You see a lot of negative examples in robotics, according to Gupta. But hallucinations aren’t super common in that field and there are guardrails.
And don’t expect these humanoids in the streets overnight, he added. It’ll be a slow integration.
There will be “a completely different level of investment” from GPUs and data centers to get to the future of robotics, Gupta said. With all that data, though, it will be deployed very quickly. The first use case for Skild will be bringing its robots to factories, he said.
The cofounders really emphasize their Pittsburgh identity and the strength of the ecosystem to help them get to where they are. What sets Pittsburgh’s ecosystem apart from the rest of the US? It doesn’t “believe in just fancy stuff, [we] want to make things work,” Gupta said.
— Katie Malone, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and national editor at Technical.ly
8:30 a.m.
Day two
Welcome back to attendees and our live blog followers! Refresh for updates throughout the day.
ICYMI, read Alice’s latest on Gov. Josh Shapiro’s AI announcement and his response to environmental concerns about data centers.
— Katie Malone, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and national editor at Technical.ly
Sept. 11, 2025
3:45 p.m.
Shapiro expands statewide AI pilot
Alright, it’s the moment everyone has been waiting for: Gov. Josh Shapiro takes the stage with Carnegie Mellon University President Farnam Jahanian, BNY CEO Robin Vince and Westinghouse Interim CEO Dan Sumner.
First, Shapiro is talking about that big $20 billion Amazon announcement. His goal is to create a workforce pipeline around it, claiming 10,000 tradespeople will be employed fulfilling that AWS deal.
As part of this deal, Shapiro said AWS got $0 of Pennsylvania state money. PA’s cash went to university workforce development, instead. The programs focus on Pennsylvanians without a college degree. “We’ve got to provide opportunities for them,” he said.
In a public sector setting, when deploying AI in PA, some employees were initially nervous. Shapiro launched a pilot program to bring the tech to government offices earlier this year, and reports that state employees have saved an average of 95 minutes of work per day by using ChatGPT to write, summarize and research.
“I see AI not as a job replacer but a job enhancer,” Shapiro said.
Now, the governor’s office is expanding the pilot program to all qualified employees in Pennsylvania.
“Folks shouldn’t fear AI … we can do big things with these tools and deploy these tools in responsible ways,” he said.
Another big part of the data center discussion is project permitting, so that companies can get to work on building them..
“We have now in place speed and predictability for companies to be able to get their permits,” Shapiro said, thanks to tech upgrades. The commonwealth also has a “money-back” guarantee if it takes more than 30 days to process, according to Shapiro.
It has only had to issue five refunds so far, he said.
— Katie Malone, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and national editor at Technical.ly, and Alice Crow, lead Pittsburgh reporter at Technical.ly
1:30 p.m.
Turning energy into intelligence
Powering AI — Energy Compute and PA’s Future is the next main stage conversation featuring:
- EQT Corporation, President and CEO Toby Rice
- Groq, Chief Revenue Officer Ian Andrews
- Wiley Rein, Chair of National Security Nazak Nikakhtar
EQT is the largest natural gas producer in the US. What can we do to overcome our resource constraints? There is currently an industrial complex to take energy out of the ground, transport it to a facility that transforms it into electricity and then use that electricity for computing power. We must continue to support that industrial complex, Rice said.
Why is this race with China an existential threat? Electricity can be turned into intelligence. These tools can be used to influence culture, academia, defense, etc. China can produce this tech domestically and export it, so America must compete, Andrews said.
— Alice Crow, lead Pittsburgh reporter at Technical.ly
1 p.m.
The academia to product development pipeline
Next, a panel on going from research to deployment, featuring Kolter, Andrew Moore from Lovelace AI and Google DeepMind’s Alison Snyder.
What’s the point of this chat? To figure out how “instead of just firing lots of people, [how do we] make it so people … are all able to do their jobs more effectively,” Moore said.
Now, Kolter breaks down some misconceptions about AI. GenAI is powerful and intelligent, progressing rapidly. While he wants to calm the unease, a little bit of it is OK.
“In a lot of ways, yes, there are overblown claims, yes, there is hype around this, but I also think there is a real danger of underselling the power of these systems,” Kolter said. “I want to have a handful of people who think the robot apocalypse is coming in academia,” in order to set up the right precautions.
Moore said there are a lot of threats on the mind of academics. He called it “a slight crabbiness.” The people in this room, however, should be thinking differently: “We got to work now,” but just don’t overpromise — and remember that just putting humans in the loop isn’t enough to keep AI safe.
The next hurdle? Trust. “The models are almost irrelevant, what matters is the empirical performance … and that’s how we gain trust for AI,” Kolter said.
— Katie Malone, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and national editor at Technical.ly
12:45 p.m.
From research to the real world
Carnegie Mellon University’s Zico Kolter is speaking now about turning research into real-world impact.
“There is no other field where academic papers can turn into companies just two years later,” he said.
In 2007, CMU won awards for research on autonomous vehicles. Today, those same teams are working on Waymo, which is actually deployed on streets today.
In 2023, Kolter’s colleagues published papers on autonomous robots that could do parkour. That turned into Skild AI. “The speed of development here is unlike anything else,” Kolter said.
— Alice Crow, lead Pittsburgh reporter at Technical.ly
12:30 p.m.
Some context on the AI Avenue
The opening keynote kicks off with AI Strike Team executive director Joanna Doven.
Two years ago, there were 20 AI companies in Bakery Square, sparking the idea for AI Avenue.
Pittsburgh is the most concentrated AI investment hub outside of Silicon Valley, according to the AI Strike Team.
Concrete projects from the AI Strike Team:
“Now is the time to radically merge [silos],” Doven said.
— Alice Crow, lead Pittsburgh reporter at Technical.ly
12:15 p.m.
Robots, robots everywhere
Many exhibitors are, of course, from robotics companies. At the front door of the event, two stand out: Boston Dynamics brings its robot dog, and Gecko Robotics shows off its wall-scaling tech.
— Katie Malone, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and national editor at Technical.ly
12:00 p.m.
The argument against fossil fuels
Right down the block from AI Horizons, environmental activists are calling out sustainability issues in data center development.
A watershed org is talking about fracking specifically. Their question for the AI strike team: “Why isn’t clean energy and sustainability in the room today?”
Someone from Washington County talks about living in a heavily fracked area and the lack of that discussion on the agenda today. “One of the worst things that happen with AI are to the community that I live in,” she said.
— Katie Malone, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and national editor at Technical.ly
9:00 a.m.
A $10M lab for CMU
Morning! Katie and I will be at AI Horizons later today. See some of you there!
We already have our first announcement of the day: BNY and Carnegie Mellon University have entered into a five-year, $10 million agreement to create an AI Lab at CMU’s Pittsburgh campus during the 2025–26 academic year. The space will conduct joint research to create policy frameworks for AI governance.
— Alice Crow, lead Pittsburgh reporter at Technical.ly
Sept. 10, 2025
5:30 p.m.
A kickoff with the Connectors
Technical.ly hosted a celebration for our 2025 RealLIST Connectors at Accenture’s Pittsburgh office. While not an official AI Horizons event, it’s a good reminder of who to keep an eye out for tomorrow and Friday. These honorees run the meetups, initiate the collaborations and make the introductions that help Pittsburgh innovation thrive.
— Katie Malone, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and national editor at Technical.ly
Know before you go
AI Horizons 2025 officially kicks off tomorrow, and we have all the details you need to prepare. The sold-out event (don’t worry you can livestream if you didn’t snag a ticket) will feature two days of programming, announcements and big-name speakers. Read our full guide here.
— Katie Malone, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and national editor at Technical.ly
