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Sweet, Sweet Victory: PAA Awards 2025

The AI Horizons Summit 2025 was held September 11–12 at Bakery Square in Pittsburgh—an increasingly prominent hub for innovation and technology. Bakery Square, home to Google and Carnegie Mellon University offices, helped establish a 1-mile stretch of Penn Avenue as “AI Avenue,” a vision to foster the growth of the AI industry in the region. That vision has flourished: it has attracted new businesses, created jobs, and filled offices with leading AI companies. What began as a local initiative has now placed Pittsburgh in the global spotlight as one of today’s defining AI hubs.

AI Horizons draws together a broad cross-section of academia (especially CMU and Pitt), government, business (both tech startups and “legacy industrial” firms), energy players, and public policy. Ground breaking news was delivered in the AI industry as the AI Strike Team announced the deployment of new AI technologies and that Pittsburgh will be the AI capital of the United States.

On top of that, $100,000 and a year lease in Bakery offices was rewarded to the winner of the AI Pitch Competition... Surface Design Solutions!

Key Announcements & Themes from the Summit

Responsible AI & Workforce Tools
- Gov. Josh Shapiro announced that Pennsylvania is expanding access for qualified state employees to advanced generative AI tools (e.g. ChatGPT Enterprise, Microsoft Copilot Chat) building on a pilot program.
- There is emphasis on training, governance, labor management collaboration, ensuring AI is used ethically, transparently, with protections.
New Partnerships & Lab Establishments
- A major new five-year, $10 million partnership between BNY Mellon and Carnegie Mellon University to create the BNY AI Lab at CMU's School of Computer Science. The focus is on governance, trust, and accountability in mission-critical AI.
- Google launched its AI Accelerator for small businesses in Pennsylvania: free tools, training workshops, etc., to help entrepreneurs use AI.
“Physical AI” & Real-World Deployment
- Much of the conversation was about not just what AI can do in labs, but what it's doing in robotics, autonomy, manufacturing, defense, healthcare, etc.
- CMU featured robots, demos, discussions of physical systems (robotics, autonomous mobility) and how AI and biomanufacturing intersect.
Infrastructure, Energy, and Environment
- With AI growth comes demand for data centers, massive compute, power, etc. Summit speakers discussed the energy burden and need for clean, resilient energy sources.
- A revival of interest in nuclear energy was raised, particularly by Westinghouse. It’s being considered as part of the solution to help meet AI’s power needs without over-reliance on fossil fuel.
- Environmental concerns: groups raised warnings about possible unintended effects: natural gas use, water/energy consumption, etc.
Competition, Strategy & Global Context
- The U.S. and Pennsylvania are positioning themselves in competition not just domestically but globally (China, etc.) for AI leadership.
- Amazon’s plans: one announcement includes Amazon investing about $20 billion to build out AI / cloud innovation campuses across Pennsylvania.
- Discussion of “next chapter” in economic growth: AI as central part of the strategy, tied to labor, education, infrastructure.

Want to learn more? Click here to visit Bakery Square's Blog.

Why This Matters

Pittsburgh is doubling down on its role as a national hub for AI - not just in research, but in deployment, policy, workforce. Bakery Square has become a physical marker of that shift.
The state’s strategy appears comprehensive: infrastructure, workforce training, government tools, public-private labs, small business inclusion.
Lots of opportunities are coming to Pittsburgh - from new careers to complete new industries!