Hudson Valley AI Summit Draws Record Crowd to Newburgh College

Mount Saint Mary College's Newburgh campus became the region's de facto AI capital last Tuesday when the Hudson Valley Regional AI Summit drew what college president Dr. Robert Gervasi described as a record-breaking crowd of more than 700 registrants. Orange County's official press release put the figure at more than 500 regional leaders, a discrepancy the county and college have yet to publicly reconcile.

Orange County government organized the summit, drawing participants from government agencies, businesses, educational institutions, nonprofits, and technology organizations across the Hudson Valley. The half-day program combined expert panels, live demonstrations, and an AI Innovation Lane where technology vendors and research organizations gave attendees hands-on exposure to tools already deployed across industries.

The most visceral exhibit may have been Mobi, described by the Chronicle as a child-sized humanoid AI robot that played soccer for the crowd. Orange County's social posts referred to the same robot as Moby. Alongside it stood Sparky, an AI-controlled robotic dog the Chronicle identified as used for emergency management and public safety applications.

New York State Chief Information Officer Dru Rai delivered the keynote, outlining a statewide strategy built around infrastructure, equity, and responsibility. Rai walked attendees through Governor Hochul's Empire AI initiative, a $400 million public-private partnership aimed at building a world-class computing center in Upstate New York. His central argument, as reported by the Chronicle, framed the goal as augmentation over automation: taking the robotic aspects out of jobs so workers can focus on high-value, empathetic work.

Orange County Executive Steve Neuhaus, a 1996 graduate of Mount Saint Mary College and the primary force behind the summit, cast AI in explicitly democratic economic terms. "AI is meant to serve one thing: human beings," Neuhaus said. "It's not going to replace us; it's going to make us more efficient." He argued the technology already functions as a market equalizer: "What AI has done for small companies is allow them to compete with large companies by just utilizing technology."

Dr. Glenn Marchi, Orange County's Commissioner and Chief Information Officer, connected the turnout to a broader regional shift. "The strong turnout demonstrates the Hudson Valley's growing interest in understanding and responsibly adopting AI," Marchi said. "Our goal was to bring together leaders from government, education, and business to begin building regional collaboration around AI innovation."

The summit also shone a light on workforce preparation. Mount Saint Mary College recently launched a Bachelor of Science in Data Science and Artificial Intelligence, a degree the college frames as a direct response to demand for a prepared local workforce. The event also featured the Hudson Valley Regional Cyber Scholarship, which Orange County introduced at last year's summit. Josiah Maddicks, pictured alongside Dr. Gervasi and Neuhaus in college photographs from the event, was identified as the 2025 recipient.

With attendance figures still disputed between the college's count and the county's official release, Orange County and Mount Saint Mary College have not yet issued a unified final number.