Can a new AI innovation center anchor and grow Hartford’s legacy corporations?

The city of Hartford is requesting state support to launch an artificial intelligence hub in the Capital City, an effort that could include an investment up to $100 million over several years.

The Connecticut Center for Applied AI, organizers say, would offer training to create a pipeline of workers capable of using AI tools to solve business problems. It would also contain laboratory spaces where businesses, academics and other entities could test potential AI applications and use cases.

It wouldn’t contain massive banks of servers or a supercomputer. But it would have the technology to securely connect with high-level AI engines.

“We want to make this among the most advanced workforces in the world when it comes to AI, and leverage that workforce to test out products and projects for these large corporations,” Hartford Mayor Arunan Arulampalam said.

Arulampalam envisions the AI hub as an important center of gravity, providing a talent pipeline and testing ground to help keep the city’s existing corporations anchored, while also drawing experts and students to participating universities.

“It’s a really exciting proposal and one that leans on the strengths we already have in the city,” Arulampalam said. “It is attracting significant national attention. We talked to a Harvard professor who said Hartford may be sitting on the greatest untapped gold mine for AI information in the United States because of these insurance companies.”

The venture could cost up to $28.5 million in its first five years, according to a tentative budget Hartford officials submitted Nov. 1 as part of a first-stage application for the state’s “Innovation Clusters” grant program. That amount would cover annual lease costs for 60,000 square feet of office/lab space, equipment and furnishing purchases, and fees for access to high-end AI applications.

The submitted budget also contemplates another $60 million to $80 million to construct a more permanent home for the “Connecticut Center for Applied AI.” Planners expect the center will cover its own operating costs in five years through private grants, subscriptions from corporate and other users and, potentially, contributions from partnered higher-education institutions.

Hartford Director of Development Services Jeff Auker said costs could be much lower. Much depends on how the proposal evolves in the coming months as it passes state review. It’s possible Hartford’s proposal could be meshed with complementary proposals from other Innovation Clusters applicants, he said.

Auker — who was appointed to his role in early June — previously worked as an executive at global technology services company Infosys in Hartford. His background and connections are seen as a great advantage to the proposal.

Arulampalam said the center would help local corporations innovate and spin out new products and services in industries already rooted in the area. However, the city’s proposal intentionally avoids trying to launch new startups in new industries, because those companies would likely just hustle off to Silicon Valley once they gain traction, exporting the know-how they developed in Hartford, the mayor said.

The program

The state’s $100 million Innovation Clusters grant program seeks to create spaces for innovative industries with fast growth potential. Would-be applicants were required to submit their concepts by Nov. 1.

The state Department of Economic and Community Development would not say how many proposals were received.

If DECD agrees Hartford’s AI center is worth pursuing, the city will be invited to submit a more detailed proposal that will include exactly how much state funding is desired. City officials say they haven’t yet determined that number.

The Innovation Clusters program is the state’s replacement for the $100 million “Innovation Corridors” initiative announced in 2021, which ultimately did not release any funds. That program promised cities up to $50 million to support ambitious redevelopment projects involving the expansion of advanced manufacturing, data science, insurance technology or other high-growth sectors.

The catch was state funds could only account for 20% of the project budget, requiring big antes from municipalities and private partners.

Hartford submitted a nearly $250 million plan to revitalize its Parkville neighborhood with new housing, workforce training and incubation space for advanced manufacturing.

However, applicants struggled to meet the requirements for non-state funding. The new Innovation Clusters program only requires an equal match between state funds and other sources.

A big tent

Hartford’s Innovation Clusters proposal enjoys broad support from the city’s biggest corporate residents, as well as a coalition of universities and other organizations from across the state.

That includes the Connecticut AI Alliance, a newly formed group of academics, industry leaders and experts that evolved from an AI task force formed by the General Assembly in 2023.

That task force developed proposed legislation seeking to guard against potential hazards and abuses of AI and invest in the state’s artificial intelligence workforce. The resulting bill failed to pass this year over concerns of stifling innovation, but task force members remained in touch.

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Vahid Behzadan

Vahid Behzadan, assistant professor of data science at the University of New Haven and a task force member, said months of meetings made it clear Connecticut’s industries increasingly need a workforce trained in AI applications.

Currently, Connecticut’s pool of AI talent and training resources is scattered and uncoordinated, he said.

“So, we proposed the idea of establishing what we now call the Connecticut AI Alliance,” Behzadan said. “CAIA is a consortium of universities, corporations and the public sector entities across the state that come together and pool their resources and create something that’s bigger than just the sum of their individual resources for AI workforce development, AI research and AI business development in Connecticut.”

A formal announcement of the new coalition is expected by early 2025. Founding members include the University of New Haven, University of Hartford, University of St. Joseph, Trinity College, Quinnipiac University, Goodwin University, University of Bridgeport and Connecticut State Community College.

Coalition members are helping Auker craft plans and policies for an AI hub.

Behzadan also noted Hartford has a huge leg up thanks to the data troves held by its corporations.

“Hartford has a relatively unique advantage as a hub of untapped data in sectors like insurance, health care and manufacturing,” Behzadan said. “We can think of Hartford as a data reservoir ready for AI-driven exploration.”

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Jennifer Widness

Jennifer Widness, president of the Connecticut Conference of Independent Colleges, said Hartford’s hub would provide smaller universities access to AI capabilities that would otherwise be exclusive to institutions like Yale or UConn.

“Some of the smaller schools, St. Joseph, for example, is at the table here because they have a pharmacy school, and they are thinking about how they can use AI to not only develop new technologies, but also how they use technology to train students better in that world as well,” Widness said. “And so for them to partner with the University of Hartford, the University of New Haven and Goodwin will make those resources go further.”

The city’s application for state aid also includes written expressions of support from Travelers, Stanley Black & Decker, Hartford HealthCare, Cigna and CVS Health.

“By fostering this collaborative environment, the city can promote research and development that benefits Hartford-based companies,” Travelers Cos. Vice President of Government Relations Courtney Larkin wrote in a letter included with Hartford’s Innovation Clusters application. “Travelers is proud to partner in this initiative, ensuring our community remains at the forefront of technological advancement.”

More to come

Many details of the AI center are yet to be determined, including funding sources, Auker acknowledged. He imagines partner corporations and universities will contribute. Other state and federal grants could come into play.

“There are options,” Auker said. “We are comfortable that the range of options available to us will be sufficient to build what we want to build, and to gather the people we want to gather, and to create the value we want to create.”

Auker said he’s confident the partnerships already created will propel Hartford’s push for an AI center regardless of the answer to its state-funding request.

“The real meat to this is the people, the alliances,” Auker said. “Between the corporations coming together and the schools coming together, that’s the essence of it.”