Doven's Viewpoint: Pittsburgh’s Moment to Lead New AI Economy
As published in The Pittsburgh Business Times, May 9, 2025 — Joanna Doven
Story Highlights
Duolingo embraces AI, signaling Pittsburgh's leadership in transformative technology.
Pittsburgh's unique advantages position it for AI economy leadership.
AI infrastructure drives economic growth in Heartland states.
When there’s a shift this big, the worst thing you can do is wait.”
That’s how Duolingo Inc. CEO Luis von Ahn explained his company’s decision to go all-in on AI. Reorganizing teams and replacing contract roles with automation isn’t an easy thing to communicate, but von Ahn didn’t flinch. Staying competitive means embracing disruption and moving fast. Headquartered in Pittsburgh, Duolingo is now racing to the bleeding edge, deploying next-generation language tools powered by the region’s world-class research talent — and by artificial intelligence itself, a new force multiplier for the human brain.
This wasn’t just a strategic move — it was a signal. A signal that Pittsburgh isn’t just home to world-class researchers and technologists. It’s where the most transformative technology of our time is being built and brought to market. In a city forged by hard work and reinvention, Duolingo’s leap into AI captures the moment we’re in: A once-in-a-generation shift where the bold shape the future — and the places that move fast will own it.
This is the New AI Economy — an economic revolution that favors regions with the right mix of research talent, usable data and a dense cluster of builders. It rewards metros that can turn ideas into AI-enabled products that improve safety, enhance human health and simplify everyday life. Pittsburgh is one of those places.
But this moment isn’t only occurring in the digital innovation economy. It’s physical and capital intensive. AI runs on trillions of interconnected processors — GPUs — housed in secure, power-hungry data centers. In 2024 alone, data centers in Ohio generated over $931 million in paid state and local tax revenue. For the first time since the 1970s, Heartland states are outpacing the coasts in economic growth — and AI infrastructure is a driving force behind the shift. Former farmland is being transformed into data centers. Defunct industrial sites are coming back to life, generating the tax revenue that rebuilds schools, funds public services and powers local economies. This isn’t just growth; it’s a reinvention rooted in the new demands of the AI era.
The places that will lead in this new era will offer — at speed — what AI demands: Abundant power, affordable land and deep technical talent. Pittsburgh has all of this — and something no other metro can replicate. You can’t pick up and move the nation’s top AI and cybersecurity school, Carnegie Mellon University. You can’t recreate the University of Pittsburgh’s vast medical data ecosystem. And you certainly can’t relocate the Marcellus Shale to California to fuel large-scale AI deployment and statewide tax generation. These aren’t just advantages — they’re immovable foundations for leadership in the AI economy.
The numbers are already telling us that our innovation strengths are putting us in an enviable position. InnovatePGH reported that in Q1 of 2025, Pittsburgh startups raised a record $1.87 billion in venture capital — outpacing Columbus, Ohio, and Phoenix by more than 30 times and rivaling Austin, Texas. These companies aren’t chasing hype. They’re solving hard national challenges —defense, logistics and health care —and that’s exactly where federal and private capital is flowing. Venture funding in defense and health care AI jumped over 30% in 2024, and the federal government has earmarked $150 billion for defense tech in 2025.
But exactly how much of this capital and related job and tax generation catapults our economy depends on how quickly we organize.
Our economy is de-globalizing. State-shoring — building secure, domestic tech infrastructure — is becoming a national imperative. The metros and states that respond with speed and coordination will lead. That means bold policies: Discounted GPU, or compute access for startups, AI industrial growth zones that convert old steel sites into component-making hubs for semiconductors and data centers, and legislative clarity that signals we’re open for AI business.
Take Aurora Innovation Inc. Last week, the Pittsburgh-headquartered company made history when one of its autonomous trucks safely completed a fully driverless trip on a public highway. The AI stack powering that moment was developed here by hundreds of employees, but the real-world deployment and the hundreds of operations, maintenance and logistics jobs that come with it is occurring elsewhere. Why? Texas passed legislation enabling autonomous vehicle deployment back in 2017. Pennsylvania waited seven more years. We’re the birthplace of transformative technology, but without timely policy action, we risk job exportation on the backs of Pennsylvania born talent and research.
An Aurora Innovation Inc. truck operates on a highway in Texas without a driver.
Aurora
If we want to be a state of innovation and job creation, we have to be first movers. Just as Pennsylvania once powered American prosperity through steel, we now have the opportunity and responsibility to lead with AI. This requires immense collaboration that crosses sectors and political lines.
The AI Strike Team was created to serve as shock absorbers during this seismic shift — bridging institutions, accelerating partnerships and eliminating friction. We move with urgency because the clock is ticking. This fall, AI Horizons 2025 returns under the theme: AI — Deployed. It’s not just a conference. It’s a declaration. And it’s Pittsburgh’s chance to show the world what it looks like when a city doesn’t just imagine the future — it makes it happen.
Joanna Doven is executive director of the AI Strike Team.
