A new report out today looks at the strengths of various U.S. cities when it comes to funding, research, job creation and usage of AI technologies, and finds two California cities in the lead: San Francisco and San Jose.
That's not a huge surprise, as those two cities are generally considered the northern and southern poles of the Silicon Valley region, which is home to companies such as OpenAI, Google, Elon Musk's X.ai, Anthropic and Stanford University.
But Boston is ranked among 27 other metropolitan areas as a "star hub," according to the new report from the Brookings Institution, a nonpartisan think tank based in Washington, D.C.
Those cities all have "strong AI ecosystems, balancing top‑tier talent, research and enterprise uptake" of AI software, according to the report. However, the report notes that just as the state government in Massachusetts has created a new AI hub to foster more development in the industry, so have states such as New York, New Jersey and North Dakota.
Boston scores best in the new report on factors related to our universities and our ability to pull in federal funding. We're #1 when it comes to our population of workers with doctorates in computer science, math or engineering; #1 when it comes to cranking out research papers related to AI and #2 when it comes to attracting federal research dollars related to Research and Development (The report, incidentally, relies on data about federal funding from 2024, before President Trump took office and initiated significant cuts.)
"Federal investment cuts could be very damaging, especially to less developed areas, but also to Greater Boston," said Mark Muro, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution who co-authored the report, "Mapping the AI Economy." "We think maintaining federal research flows, especially in the face of what China is doing, is very important — for the nation, and for excellent local clusters like Boston's. The same goes for immigrant talent and foreign students."
I sought out reactions to the report from a handful of people active in the Boston AI scene.
"Being ranked second-tier feels a bit like getting a B+ on a test you studied hard for — good effort, but you know you've got an A in you," wrote Jonathan Corbin via email.
Corbin is chief executive of Maven AGI, a Boston AI startup that serves corporate customers.
"Boston attracts and generates talent from schools like Harvard, MIT and Babson, but where it falls behind is in the investments to help people stay here and build" their companies, he wrote.
Rudina Seseri of Glasswing Ventures is a venture capitalist who frequently backs AI startups. She said, "I would like to see greater investment in compute infrastructure accessible to startups and researchers, faster commercialization pathways for AI research coming out of our universities and more targeted workforce development programs — especially those that broaden access beyond traditional tech pipelines."
Seseri added that "we would also benefit enormously from incentives to attract AI investment dollars and make it easier for local startups to pilot and scale their technologies."
"Boston doesn't need to copy Silicon Valley, we need to be a louder version of ourselves," said Judah Phillips, the Boston-based Chief AI and Product Officer of Market Holdings, a New Jersey company. Among the ideas he suggests: more capital and tax incentives to grow companies here, as well as integrating AI into K-12 education, and "more apprenticeships and credential programs to give more people access to real AI jobs."
He would also like to see the state of Massachusetts invest in AI technology from startups.
Phillips is an organizer of Boston AI Week , taking place this fall, which includes a career fair he helped start in 2024. Their goal is to organize 100 different events over the course of the week.
Paul Baier, an AI analyst who is also involved with Boston AI Week, said that "Boston has plenty of assets." But he said that after the passage of the Mass Leads economic development bill in 2024, which proposed creating an AI Hub, "momentum seems to have slowed. I hope with the appointments of a new Secretary of Economic Development and Executive Director of the AI Hub that communications and speed increase."
A spokesperson for the AI Hub , part of the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative , a public economic development agency primarily funded by the state, said the hub plans to spend about $50 million over the next two fiscal years.
Among its initiatives: a professional development program for high school science and technology educators, and an "AI Models Innovation Challenge" to "encourage ethical, impactful and forward-looking advancements in applied AI," according to spokesperson Jake Stern.
The Brookings Institution report touches on the impact AI will have on jobs — especially white-collar professions. Research from Brookings suggests that roughly one-third of all workers "could see at least 50% of their occupation's tasks disrupted by generative AI in the coming years, with higher 'exposure' levels for higher-skill computer and office activities," according to the report.
Some of that disruption could create new jobs and enhance productivity, the report says, but it could also lead to "chronic under- or unemployment."
"For sure, the nation will want to invest more in 'active labor market policies' that help people shift into new jobs," the report says. This could include funding for retraining workers, as well as developing more flexible benefits that are not tied to a single employer.
Other data released this week on venture capital funding for startups also finds that funding for AI companies in California — and in particular, money raised by ChatGPT-maker OpenAI, is helping to increase that state's funding totals, while venture capital in Massachusetts declined in the second quarter of 2025, dropping to its lowest level in eight years.
That's not a great sign, since funding is a key ingredient for growing future crops of successful companies.
Stories by Scott Kirsner
Read the original article on MassLive .
