Why PASSHE should prioritize AGI, small business workforce growth research Lab

By David Stephen

The Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education [PASSHE], the Chair of the PASSHE Board of Governors, Dr. Cynthia Shapira and the PASSHE Chancellor, Dr. Christopher M. Fiorentino could immediately open an office for artificial general intelligence [AGI] research project, as an effort to capture some value in the humongous economy that AI has created.

No company has built AGI, but most companies with frontier models in AI have skyrocketing value, and the prospect that any company can contribute to, or have a lead, in a segment that could proximate AGI would pull an unprecedented value.

PASSHE should prioritize AGI, workforce growth research Lab

If PASSHE can underscore this, it will be a major case for progress from which the rest of the future can be built. Simply, assuming PASSHE supports a lab that spins off into a startup from one of the universities — that develops a solid architecture for something towards AGI — and the value of that startup hits a trillion [totally possible now], the brand value of PASSHE, given the excellent judgment call; then the stake can be used to fund tens of high-potential startups in the state, creating novel value, jobs, inducing production, exports and securing the future for the Commonwealth.

At no extra budget, PASSHE can immediately put together a team across universities, including computer scientists, mathematicians and neuroscientists. The goal is to dedicate some of their time say, 4 – 6 hours a week, towards designing prospective models for AGI — brain, math, and algorithmic.

Whatever team has something promising can spinoff into a startup and work can take off from there. The ambition is the only cost. Most of the already existing facilities can be used. The goal will be to get there ahead of others, make it safe, make it beneficial to society as well as to get PA some exponential economic value.

This effort can begin as soon as June 29, 2026. It is both urgent, necessary, feasible and future inclined. There is also nothing, per securing tomorrow than going in this line for PASSHE, given how AI is likely to hold the future.

In making the decision, optimism, diligence and exploration would lead. It is possible that some detractors may argue that if the AI corporations are already trying, what is PASSHE to do?

The possibility is to begin with memory. Say a new memory architecture that AGI can be developed. Humans use generalized memory. Humans do not store an individual memory of everything. For example, a blue door, a small door, a big door, an unpainted door and so forth.

Door is stored as a collection. It is this collection that is used to make immediate interpretations for sensory inputs as well as useful for intelligence. Assuming all doors are stored separately, it is possible to have moments to see some doors and not know. And could be so for other things.

Meanwhile, digital stores individual memory of everything. While the deep learning architecture, transformer, is great for prediction, it will be difficult to have generalized artificial intelligence just based on individual digital memory. Simply, a lack of progress in AI, is also linked with how memory is stored. If that is solved, AGI might be closer.

So, the first project for PASSHE AGI research is to work on a generalized memory for digital systems, using math, hardware designs and software as well. The initial concept could be ready by December, 2026.

This innovation could predicate major digital developments for the future. Once PASSHE powers it, the value it will hold will compound through the century.

There are other angles as well, but the goal is to do something, in an important way, in a direction to soar advantage for Pennsylvania.

Other paths exist along the line, but once the project is announced, lots of efforts will go in, division of labor, as well as vision for some near-term results, while medium-and long-term efforts continue.

This theoretical brain science model is based in the postulation in Conceptual Biomarkers and Theoretical Biological Factors for Psychiatric and Intelligence Nosology.

Small Business Workforce Growth Research Lab

PASSHE would need to set up small business workforce growth research labs across schools and communities. The objective is growth preparedness, such that what can be helpful to businesses to grow, hire more people and expand is available in a sophisticated way.

This is beyond regular small business tips or support. This is small business growth concerns amid the rise of artificial intelligence. It is basically what to do, with the assumption that a small business owner is competing against AI.

The labs will quickly explore chances for some small businesses as champions, where they have a great market fit, competitive advantage and a solid value proposition. They can be coached for growth-type of the era.

For example, when some manufacturing jobs were lost to offshoring and automation, there was no tactical small business workforce growth research lab to prepare the businesses in several counties for the future or for ways to absorb people or have people adapt. The goal here is to do so as AI rises.

Also, in-state companies can support the objectives, with tailored products and services, to enable small businesses.

For example, there can be labor capital, where loans are used to pay wages directly. This means that instead of giving loans in bulk to the business owner, the loan is used to pay wages directly to workers at the end of an interval.

Simply, there are some special workers a small business might need but not be able to pay. It could be IT, sales, marketing and so on, just to boost advantage over an interval. This type of loan may help, which can be for at most 3 months, and be paid back [say] after 4 months.

There can also be tiered hiring, where multiple people are hired on the same role, but on different tiers, working for capped hours and paid differently. This may ease labor costs, and also provide certain needed skills without full hiring. There are other possibilities that include using large language models [LLMs] to find new market places and so forth.

PASSHE has opportunities with artificial general intelligence and small business workforce growth research lab. The gains are broad, it will depend on the haste of PASSHE to pursue the future for the possibility of these, this June.

There is a recent [June 2, 2026] story on PennLive, Pennsylvania’s economy is among the worst in the U.S., report says, stating that, “A new report has delved into the health of each state’s economy. Pennsylvania, unfortunately, didn’t do so hot.”

“Conducted and published by WalletHub, the report ranked the Keystone State’s economy as the 22nd worst overall in the United States.”

“Researchers at the website determined rankings after analyzing each state plus Washington D.C. across three main categories: “Economic Activity,” “Economic Health,” and “Innovation Potential.” Relevant sub-metrics including “State Gross Public Debt as Percent of GDP” and “Change in Total Civilian Labor Force” were also factored in.”

David Stephen does research in conceptual brain science and served as a visiting scholar in medical entomology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He did computer vision research at Rovira i Virgili University in Tarragona.

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