Officials say project would prepare workers and businesses for AI adoption.
As Hartford awaits a decision on tens of millions of dollars in state funding for a proposed downtown Applied AI Center, city leaders are working to clarify what the project would — and would not — be.
Unlike the massive, energy-intensive data centers drawing opposition in communities around the country, Hartford's proposal is envisioned as a workforce training, research and collaboration hub designed to help residents, students and businesses adapt to rapidly evolving artificial intelligence technology.
City leaders and academic partners say the center would not house large-scale computing infrastructure used to train AI models. Instead, it would provide education, testing and collaboration space where businesses, students and researchers can learn how to use AI tools and develop practical applications.
“It’s not a room full of servers sucking up energy,” Hartford Mayor Arunan Arulampalam said in a video recently posted to social media. “It’s a place where a healthcare company can come and work with our students to build out technology that will save lives in the future.”
Workforce training
The proposal is part of Connecticut's $100 million Innovation Clusters program, which seeks to accelerate growth in emerging industries in urban centers. In 2024, proposals centered on Hartford, New Haven and Stamford were selected as finalists.
So far, the state has awarded $50.5 million to a New Haven-based initiative focused on life sciences, artificial intelligence and quantum technologies.
Arulampalam said Hartford officials have received positive feedback from the state and expect a decision in the coming months.
The mayor said the center is intended to help Hartford residents participate in an economy increasingly shaped by artificial intelligence.
“AI is creating a nationwide job crisis, and I will not let Hartford residents bear the brunt of it,” Arulampalam said. “Hartford isn’t going to wait for Wall Street or Silicon Valley to dictate what the future looks like. We are going to build it ourselves and ensure that our residents are sharing in the benefits.”
Questions about the proposal have surfaced as communities across the country grapple with the rapid expansion of AI data centers, which require significant amounts of electricity and water to operate.
Hartford officials stress that the proposed center bears little resemblance to those facilities.
Arulampalam and other organizers say it would access out-of-state computing power. Connecticut's high electricity costs would make an AI generation facility impractical, they said, and such a use would not be supported in downtown Hartford.
“We are — the mayor and myself — we’re opposed to those as well,” said Hartford Director of Development Services Jeff Auker.
University of New Haven Assistant Professor of Data Science Vahid Behzadan said confusion appears to stem from the similarity between the terms "AI center" and "AI data center."
“AI data centers are a real national issue,” Behzadan said. “I understand why communities are concerned about them and why there are questions being asked about power, water, noise and environmental impact.”
But, he said, the proposed Hartford facility “should not be confused with that kind of industrial-scale computing facility.”
“The purpose of this AI innovation center is to help people and organizations use AI,” said Behzadan, also a founding member of the Connecticut AI Alliance. “This is mostly focused on training workforce, supporting students, helping small businesses, connecting startups with mentors, supporting applied research and creating a place where public, private and academic partners can work together.”
Gathering ideas
Hartford leaders have spent roughly two years working with colleges, universities, businesses and nonprofits to develop plans for a center focused primarily on workforce development, while also providing space for research, collaboration and real-world testing of artificial intelligence applications.
A first phase of that effort is already underway.
Hartford and Trinity College have opened a 6,433-square-foot space in Constitution Plaza that serves as a gathering place for training sessions, community events, office hours and collaborative work among organizations including the Hartford AI Collective, Women in AI and QuantumCT.
“It literally is just kind of a cool space to gather, to train, to get people together,” Auker said.
The initiative has already launched pilot projects. Last year, 13 Trinity College students partnered with faculty, community organizations and businesses on applied AI projects.
Danny Briere, head of innovation and entrepreneurship at Trinity College, said one project with Connecticut Children’s used AI to create a tool that allows pediatricians to quickly retrieve information from a large collection of PDF documents issued by the hospital.
“We worked on a meaningful problem for them that they put into deployment and it's now serving pediatricians across the state,” Briere said.
Larger ambitions
The Constitution Plaza facility is intended to serve as a jumping-off point for a much larger center on a roughly 3-acre city-owned site behind Dunkin' Park.
The property currently contains a vacant five-story building that once served as a data storage facility for banks and insurance companies. Hartford has already secured $8.4 million in state funding to demolish the structure, with work expected to begin after the Yard Goats season and be substantially completed by year's end.
If anticipated state funding comes through, current plans call for a 100,000- to 150,000-square-foot Applied AI Center costing roughly $72 million to $78 million, Auker said. The facility would include workforce training space, flexible collaboration areas, robotics programs, maker spaces and offices for technology partners.
“Ideally, we'd be looking to get some suites in there where we could get some big tech partners potentially to set up a Hartford headquarters here,” Auker said.
A nearby hotel and parking garage would be developed by Stamford-based RMS Cos., which is also building hundreds of apartment units near the ballpark.
Auker said major Connecticut employers are seeking an AI-literate workforce for entry- and mid-level jobs, not necessarily cutting-edge researchers and developers.
The Travelers Cos., The Hartford, Nassau Financial Group and Hartford HealthCare are among organizations that have pledged financial support for the initiative, he said. They are looking for workers who understand how to use AI tools in everyday business settings.
“What they're saying is: ‘How do I recruit customer service reps, actuaries, underwriters, claims handlers that know how to use AI tools, that are comfortable with AI tools, that know how it works in a business in a personal context,’” Auker said.
The center is also intended to help small businesses become more competitive by exposing owners and employees to practical AI applications, Auker said.
"We need to give them the tools and the capabilities and the access to learn how to run a restaurant better, how to run a retail shop better, how to improve the operations of a property manager," Auker said.
