Why Pennsylvania needs AI R&D innovation not data centers

Latest guest post by David Stephen who looks at AI R&D innovation.

Having data centers were never the most valuable segment in the AI boom for any county.

The initial reception of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and Gov. Josh Shapiro to hosting data centers were only cool as being business friendly, not because they were necessary to get PA to the top of advantage in the AI revolution.

AI R&D innovation

PA should want to be the center of start-ups and venture capital at the frontier of solutions in the AI advancement.

There should actually be a PA AI peak strategy office, where tactics on how and where to take advantage would be mechanized to have efforts follow.

If this existed, data centers would never have been included in the package.

That PA office would aim high, not seek crumbs.

For example, in the last year, there have been cheaper open-weights models from China, there are efforts to develop US alternatives, so why can’t those companies be in PA?

There have been recent reports of AI agents going rogue and several discussions about AI alignment and safety. Why won’t PA be the center stage of the startups that are trying to keep AI safe for all?

There are news about AI taking up more tasks at work, hence reducing the need to hire more people. PA can have a start-of-the-art labor economics research lab, to explore new directions against that. [In July of last year, there was the Pennsylvania Energy and Innovation Summit at Carnegie Mellon University, with over $92 billion in private sector investments for AI and energy infrastructure, announced.]

It is possible to develop AI for preventive health against different types of infectious and contagious diseases. [Pennsylvania Department of Health Provides Statewide Update on Measles Outbreak as Cases Reach 460 in 31 Counties. August, 2026]

Measles have been in national news for around a year, assuming a PA startup, some AI health lab or a research lab pursued a model desperately, especially to shape prevention and then care, it would have been helpful against the developing measles situation.

Recently, there have been several settlements from social media companies that violated child safety laws. Many are extending usage adjustments against addictions and to mitigate mental health affect.

Some people have argued that even with time-limits, it is similar to saying someone can use a substance for a short-time. Well, maybe what would be necessary is to show a parallel of what social media contents are doing to the mind, such that users are better aware of likely risks, especially with negative emotions.

This means that it is not just the restrictions of notifications or age, or time, or whatever, but a display of what happens to the mind that results in the grip of social media.

This answer as a dynamic flowchart can shape what to become of mind safety compliance, going into the future. It will use a dynamic flowchart, to show predictive outcomes, with certain contents, and then real-time outcomes in some sessions. It will come at a subscription, and could even become a regulatory or say duty of care mandate, towards safety in some jurisdictions and school districts.

Assuming that a PA AI startup can provide this, it would be a major solution that would be global, offering licenses even in major markets in Asia, Europe and other continents.

The same dynamic flowchart can be useful against AI delusion and psychosis as well as problem gambling. [Shapiro Administration Launches First-of-its-Kind Program Offering Housing, Transportation and Other Support for Problem Gambling in Pennsylvania. August, 2026]

While this is amazing, it is possible to go further by appending conceptual neuroimaging to gambling and sports betting applications.

Simply, what makes the mind susceptible to gambling applications in a way that’d have some lose much yet persist. Why do people still reserve intent or control in some experiences but lose it while gambling?

In the human memory, there are destinations for caution and consequences, conceptually. These destinations are often skipped, due to new sequences towards reward, while using a gambling application.

The objective of the dynamic flowchart is to show users a parallel what is occurring in the mind, for the possibility to increase intent or affective friction. Also, the dynamic flowchart could estimate usage extent, give risk scores, recommend care tips for the next session, alert loved ones and so forth.

The predictive aspect of wins and losses can be made by AI, so that when there are breaks from usages, it can show what happens after losing so much and deciding to try again and so on.

These and more can be done in PA, to benefit the State, grow revenue and influence. The dynamic flowchart is based on the postulate in Conceptual Biomarkers and Theoretical Biological Factors for Psychiatric and Intelligence Nosology.

The Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture just closed the Pennsylvania Sustainable Agriculture Program for projects in the EPA’s Most Effective Basins (MEBs) regions – August, 2026.

While this is great, the bigger ambition is how could PA lead the provision of global food security insurance, amid soaring natural disasters, like the floods in Nepal and the recent earthquakes in Latin America?

Cheaper food might mean agricultural subsidies. How do those places achieve it? It is possible to have them do food security insurance, where they can buy premiums, which would be used to subsidize agricultural necessities in their countries.

Irrigation, pesticides, fertilizers, farm machinery, seeds, storage, land, and transportation to market are some of the major agricultural necessities globally. In many countries, they have a number of staple foods. If some subsidies are applied to 1 – 2 of the crops, it can guarantee that there will be food, almost at any low price or situation.

Now, to make almost everyone buy into the insurance, there could be an initial raffle win for some, while everyone else who didn’t win can use their insurance to buy some cheap crops.

Simply, to pool money to fund subsidies for some crops. A PA AI startup can organize this. Coordinating the software, bringing a coalition that would include suppliers, deliveries, and others. It would even include some PA farmers, so that exports are possible to several places for some necessities.

Gov. Josh Shapiro needs to drive an encompassing AI strategy to win at the peak, for PA. Data centers are no longer the big deal, but there is still a lot more in the AI sphere for PA.

Treating this with haste, from September 4, 2026, or just after, PA can announce an encompassing AI startup strategy to win, against measles, problem gambling, social media addiction, global food insecurity and much more.

There is a recent [August, 2026] report on AP, Measles deaths reported in Pennsylvania spark fight among politicians and health officials, stating that, “The recent announcement of Pennsylvania’s first measles-related deaths in decades has ignited a public feud among politicians and health officials who disagree over the role of the contagious disease in the fatalities.”

“Independent experts say the conflict is a symptom of a social and political debate over how to frame a national surge in measles cases, the worst seen in more than three decades.”

“Pennsylvania officials this week reported that two unvaccinated residents died after being infected with measles, with Gov. Josh Shapiro stressing that vaccinations could have averted the deaths.”

“But the announcement quickly came under fire, as a clash erupted between Shapiro, a vaccine-promoting Democrat, and U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a Trump administration appointee with a history of raising alarms about established vaccines. Kennedy said in a social post the deaths “may even have been altogether fabricated.””

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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