An artificial intelligence summit convened in Pittsburgh on Tuesday by Republican Sen. David McCormick is drawing praise from local business leaders, but outcry from community and labor groups.
The Energy and Innovation Summit at Carnegie Mellon University promises to gather the world’s top leaders in energy and AI along with global investors, labor and trades leaders, and government officials. McCormick said the event will showcase Pennsylvania’s potential to power the AI revolution.
Local business leaders agreed.
“As a company rooted in Pennsylvania and driven by innovation, we believe the region is uniquely positioned to lead. The Summit represents a meaningful step forward in aligning our country’s energy strength with the transformative potential of AI,” said EQT spokesperson Amy Rogers. The natural gas company will attend the event.
But on the outskirts of campus Monday morning, Democratic U.S. Rep. Summer Lee, whose 12th congressional district includes Pittsburgh, spoke out about President Donald Trump’s planned attendance at the summit.
Surrounded by representatives from SEIU Local 32BJ and immigrant rights group Casa San Jose, Lee criticized McCormick and Trump for holding a gathering of the rich and powerful in Pittsburgh, after passing a massive spending and tax bill that cuts programs people in Western Pennsylvania rely on.
“There are new people every day who are harmed by their tactics, by their policies, and it is incumbent on us to let them know who did this to them,” Lee said.
Hundreds of CMU students and alumni signed onto a petition asking the university to stop the event.
“By hosting this summit, at which major fossil fuel, oil, and AI executives, along with Donald Trump himself, will be present, CMU cannot claim to defend sustainability, freedom of speech, or democracy in good faith,” the petition said.
In a Monday message to the CMU community, President Farnam Jahanian said he recognizes the decision to host the summit has prompted concern.
“Let me be clear: as I have shared in the past, when we have significant policy disagreements with this Administration — regarding cuts to research funding and support for international students, for example — we have defended our position and vigorously advocated for higher education,” Jahanian said.
“Universities must remain places where divergent perspectives can be expressed freely and peacefully,” Jahanian added.
A CMU spokesperson reiterated that message Monday, saying the summit will include “an exposition where CMU experts and faculty, as well as other academic institutions, will have the opportunity to engage directly with industry leaders and policymakers.”
Momentum for Pittsburgh
Energy groups and members of the business community are welcoming the event.
Dave Mawhinney, the founding executive director of CMU’s Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship and an entrepreneur himself, said the event is symbolic for Pittsburgh.
”It’s taking advantage of the great strengths that we have here, but I think that it will actually start to create momentum and attention for this region,” Mawhinney said.
Mawhinney said the combination of educational resources at Pittsburgh universities and energy resources — including natural gas and Pennsylvania’s nuclear fleet that can be used to power tech ventures in data centers — can attract outside investment.
“ I think it’s creating — what we say in the venture capital world and startup world — a flywheel: That success breeds more success and that the more success you have, the bigger and faster you become,” he said.
Stefani Pashman, CEO of the Allegheny Conference on Community Development, said the summit is very positive for Pittsburgh, which she said has a desire for growth.
“There’s an appetite for welcoming new companies and investments and I think that there’s the know-how to put together partnerships and relationships,” she said.
Marcellus Shale Coalition president Jim Welty said Pennsylvania natural gas can power AI infrastructure, creating a “win-win” for the economy, tradespeople, and national security.
But some in the CMU community warn that AI functions use more energy than other computing tasks. Advocates are concerned more data centers connected to the electric grid could cause a number of problems, including higher electric bills for residential customers. And if the energy for AI is drawn from fossil-fuel powered sources, it could drive up carbon emissions, which are already having an impact on the planet.
“There’s gonna be more booms in fracking,” said Carrie McDonough, an assistant chemistry professor at CMU researching pollutants.
At a press conference hosted by CMU College Democrats Monday, McDonough said techniques used to extract fossil fuels will worsen hazardous air and water pollutants in a region that has struggled to maintain clean air.
Other speakers said the White House has also sought to drastically scale back federal research grants, which many CMU professors rely on. Jess Vinskus, vice president of the Graduate Student Assembly at CMU and leader in its Academic Workers Union, said that hosting the summit “is showing CMU where their priorities are. And it doesn’t feel like it’s with us.”
McDonough said none of CMU’s environmental experts were invited, though the school said Monday that faculty from the school and others would have a chance to engage with summit participants.
“ I’m concerned that this is part of kind of a larger indication that CMU here is willing to contradict its own values for a national spotlight,” she said.
Not invited to attend were Allegheny County Executive Sara Innamorato and the county’s economic development department. A spokesperson declined further comment.
