This Month's Latest Tech News in Durham, NC - Wednesday April 30th 2025 Edition

April 2025 marks a transformative month for Durham's tech landscape, as artificial intelligence (AI) rapidly integrates into government, business, and education.

The North Carolina State Treasurer's office, in collaboration with OpenAI, launched a 12-week pilot program to enhance efficiency in public finance - focusing on managing over $1.4 billion in unclaimed property and evaluating audits across 1,100+ municipalities, while maintaining a “respectful steward of data” approach by using only public information (AI pilot program details from Carolina Public Press).

As the region embraces these advances, North Carolina Central University debuted its Institute for Artificial Intelligence and Emerging Research, the first such program at an HBCU with Google.org funding - underscoring a talent pipeline poised to fill new AI roles (ABC11 coverage of Durham's AI education initiatives).

Meanwhile, startups like Durham-based Warrant, fresh off a $720K funding round, are leveraging AI agents to streamline compliance for fintech and brokerages, helping teams keep up with evolving regulations (profile of Warrant's AI compliance innovations).

Together, these local milestones illustrate Durham's commitment to responsible, impactful AI adoption and workforce growth.

The North Carolina House is advancing bipartisan legislation to address the escalating risks of AI-generated "deepfake" media, with the AI Regulatory Reform Act poised to make the creation and distribution of deepfake content a Class 1 misdemeanor punishable by up to 120 days in jail and civil penalties of $1,000 per incident.

House Bill 934 specifically targets audio, image, or video content intended to deceive by depicting individuals in ways they never intended, while protecting AI developers from certain lawsuits if their software is misused by licensed professionals.

Lawmakers emphasize a balanced approach, holding roundtable discussions with industry leaders to refine language and avoid discouraging AI innovation and business in North Carolina.

"What we don't want to do is over-regulate to where North Carolina gets a bad reputation for a bad place to do business, developing or selling this technology or even using it in state government,"

explained Rep.

Jake Johnson, a co-sponsor. The bill also grants victims the right to sue, request takedowns, and retrieve damages. This legislative push reflects a broader nationwide concern, as highlighted in Ballotpedia's AI deepfake policy tracker for North Carolina; currently, 34 states have enacted some form of deepfake regulation, with North Carolina advancing specific civil and criminal penalties to address election interference and personal harm.

For a comprehensive breakdown of the Act's provisions and its legislative progress, see the AI Regulatory Reform Act summary from UNC School of Government, and for insight into community and legislative concerns, read the coverage at WRAL's deepfake regulation report.

Provision	Details
Offense	Creating/distributing deceptive deepfakes (Class 1 misdemeanor)
Civil Penalties	$1,000 per incident, plus punitive damages and attorney's fees
Rights for Victims	Sue, request takedown, recover damages
AI Developer Immunity	Applies to errors by licensed professionals using AI tools

The North Carolina Senate has advanced Senate Bill 474, the “DAVE Act,” aiming to deploy artificial intelligence for comprehensive state agency efficiency audits.

If enacted, the Division of Accountability, Value, and Efficiency (DAVE) - housed within the State Auditor's office - will assess agency spending, staffing, and effectiveness, leveraging AI to uncover inefficiencies and duplicative expenditures.

According to bill sponsors, this initiative will ensure taxpayer dollars are used responsibly and align agency actions with legislative priorities. As State Auditor Dave Boliek noted,

“Our Constitution is created for ‘better government.' That's what this bill is designed to do – better government. A data-centered approach that gets real, impactful results.”

The DAVE Act passed the Senate largely along party lines (29-17), with debate highlighting concerns about transparency, workforce impacts, and the responsible integration of AI in public audits.

While the division will make recommendations on job or spending cuts, final decisions rest with the General Assembly. The act includes oversight provisions such as annual reporting and a sunset clause set for 2028.

For further insights and detailed provisions, explore the state efficiency bill involving artificial intelligence in North Carolina, a summary on North Carolina's DOGE-inspired DAVE Act proposal, and direct commentary at Carolina Journal's coverage of the DAVE Act.

Provision	Details
Division Name	Division of Accountability, Value, and Efficiency (DAVE)
Main Function	Audit agency performance, spending, and staffing using AI
Reporting Deadline	October 1 annually for agencies with vacancies open 6+ months
Sunset Clause	Expires after the 2028 general election
Senate Vote	29 in favor, 17 opposed

IQVIA, headquartered in Durham, has been named a “front-runner generative AI leader” in life sciences by Everest Group in its influential 2025 report, distinguishing it as the only clinical research organization (CRO) with this highest honor and reinforcing the city's reputation for innovation in tech and healthcare.

Everest Group highlighted IQVIA's responsible AI governance and commitment to operational excellence, stating,

“By striving for operational excellence and emphasizing responsible AI governance, IQVIA is taking a thoughtful approach to its generative AI strategy, scaling use cases from concept to deployment to maximize product life cycle value.”

IQVIA's generative AI solutions, including its Healthcare-grade AI® and AI Assistant (recently awarded the PM360 Innovation Award), are helping advance clinical trial design, provider analytics, commercialization strategies, and market access insights - serving over 100 countries with a workforce of around 88,000.

Key company data is presented below for quick reference:

Attribute	Details
Industry	Biotechnology, Health Tech, AI, Clinical Trials
Headquarters	Durham, NC
Employees	~88,000
2023 Revenues	$14.9 Billion

With this recognition, IQVIA cements its leadership role driving AI-powered advances in real-world evidence, regulatory compliance, and global clinical operations.

Explore detailed analysis in the official IQVIA press release, read Everest Group's evaluation here on BusinessWire, and find additional business context in Yahoo Finance's coverage.

Durham-based startup Warrant has made waves in the AI compliance sector by securing $720,000 in pre-seed funding to accelerate its vision of transforming marketing compliance for regulated industries like financial services, real estate, and insurance.

Founded and led by Austin Carroll, Warrant's platform uses an AI compliance agent capable of instant review and approval of marketing materials - streamlining a process that once took hours into just minutes.

The AI adapts to dynamic federal and state regulations, incorporates real-time enforcement actions, and allows users to customize policies based on brand risk tolerance and shifting rules, an especially critical feature amid today's patchwork regulatory landscape.

As CEO Carroll explained,

“The most creative marketing doesn't happen in spite of the rules - it happens when you know how to play by them... compliance isn't just compliance's job anymore. It's everyone's responsibility. And Warrant makes that possible.”

Recent investment, led by Brickyard and backed by Capitalize VC, Triangle Tweener Fund, and Vast Ventures, will be used to expand Warrant's AI capabilities and develop integrations across the marketing tech stack.

Early adopters, such as Holdings and Future Money, report review timelines reduced from six hours to just 15 minutes. Warrant stands out from generic AI solutions by tailoring compliance advice to each company's brand history, giving marketers confidence and agility in a complex regulatory environment.

For more information, read this detailed funding announcement from The SaaS News article on Warrant's funding round, explore a comprehensive breakdown of early impact and investor insights at Finsmes coverage of Warrant's pre-seed funding, and discover how Warrant's AI helps companies navigate ever-changing regulations in GrepBeat's deep dive on Warrant's AI compliance agent.

Company	Amount Raised	Round	Lead Investor	Founded	Team Size
Warrant	$720,000	Pre-seed	Brickyard	2024	7

Durham-based BotBuilt is rapidly transforming the home construction market by integrating artificial intelligence and robotics to tackle labor shortages, improve efficiency, and dramatically lower housing costs.

Founded in 2020, BotBuilt operates factories using reprogrammable robotic arms to automate the complex task of home framing, producing wall panels, floor trusses, and roof trusses that are delivered pre-assembled for quick onsite construction - a process that can cut framing times from weeks to mere hours.

As a result, builders like Capo Construction report substantial savings and improved quality, with CEO Brent Wadas aiming to cut construction costs in half. According to the Triangle Business Journal's report on BotBuilt's impact in home construction, the company's unique business model is reshaping the industry by offering robotic assembly services rather than selling equipment.

Backed by $12.4 million in seed funding, BotBuilt plans to scale operations with over 2,000 homes in their pipeline and has already built nine homes. The technology brings added safety benefits by minimizing hazardous manual labor and reducing material waste - key advances for both builders and the environment.

As co-founder Barrett Ames noted,

“Prior attempts to use robots in construction relied on hard automation... This works for cars but not construction, which requires adapting to a variety of designs.”

A notable aspect is BotBuilt's commitment to sustainability, precision, and affordability, as highlighted in their official overview of BotBuilt's construction robotics technology.

The table below summarizes BotBuilt's business impact compared to industry benchmarks:

Metric	Traditional Framing	BotBuilt Robotics
Framing Duration	~1 month	Hours
Labor Cost (per sq ft)	$4 - $10	<$1/hour for robot
Material Waste	High	Minimized
Cost Reduction Goal	-	Up to 50%

For a deeper dive into how BotBuilt's flexible robotics and AI-backed solutions are setting new standards in affordable, safe, and efficient construction, explore the detailed industry coverage at TechCrunch's feature on BotBuilt's robotics innovations.

North Carolina stands at a pivotal crossroads as rapid AI innovation fuels both economic growth and surging electricity demand, sparking debates over how to balance tech expansion with power grid sustainability.

With data centers powering AI workloads projected to account for up to 44% of U.S. electricity load growth by 2028, Duke Energy and state regulators are reevaluating the need for costly new gas infrastructure.

A recent Duke University study on AI industry power usage suggests new data centers can be integrated without major grid upgrades if operators adopt flexible usage and renewable energy, potentially saving North Carolina billions in investment.

However, the environmental footprint is hard to ignore: large AI data centers consume energy equivalent to hundreds of thousands of homes, and their power needs - sometimes six times the water consumption of entire countries - raise concerns about rate spikes and local environmental impacts, as detailed in a recent NC Newsline report on AI energy demand.

National and state leaders, including the UNC Cleantech Summit's energy experts, now emphasize collaborative grid modernization, clean energy projects, and AI-enabled demand management as paths to sustainable growth.

As policymakers consider the future, the promise of using AI to enable smarter, more resilient energy systems is gaining traction - with the potential, according to a RAND study on AI and the US electric grid, to more than double grid reserves and reduce costs by 10% through intelligent load management.

As one local scientist put it,

“Each one of these AI models has to sit on a server somewhere, and they tend to be very, very big. So if your millions or billions of users are talking to the system simultaneously, the computing systems have to really grow and grow and grow.”

The coming months will determine whether North Carolina can turn this surge in demand into an opportunity for climate leadership, affordable energy, and responsible AI-driven progress.

This month, Durham emerged at the forefront of public sector AI innovation with the North Carolina State Treasurer's launch of a 12-week pilot program in partnership with OpenAI, aiming to boost operational efficiency and transparency within state government.

Unveiled at North Carolina Central University, the initiative leverages a sophisticated version of ChatGPT to assist in summarizing financial reports, pinpointing early warning signs in audits, and conducting deep searches for over $1.4 billion in unclaimed property - while upholding a strict “bright red line” that bars the use of any private data.

The pilot is non-binding and free, mirroring similar efforts in Minnesota and Pennsylvania, where government employees have reported substantial daily time savings.

As Treasurer Brad Briner underscored,

“Imagine the time saved if ChatGPT can help summarize reports, identify warning signs in local government financial audits, or do deep data searches for unclaimed property.”

The program's safeguards and focus areas are summarized below:

Aspect	Details
Duration	12 weeks (March–May 2025)
Divisions Involved	Unclaimed Property, State & Local Government Finance
Data Privacy	Public data only; no access to personal or health records

Among those championing the effort, OpenAI's Ronnie Chatterji commented,

“We think partnerships like this are going to show the benefits of technology to serve all humanity.”

Learn more from comprehensive coverage at WUNC's report on the treasurer's ChatGPT integration, Carolina Public Press' deep dive into the pilot's expected impact, and the Carolina Journal's breakdown of the ethical and efficiency implications.

Durham-based Atsena Therapeutics has strengthened the city's position as a biotech leader by raising an oversubscribed $150 million Series C round, led by Bain Capital and supported by Wellington Management and prominent life sciences investors.

This influx of capital will be used to advance its lead program ATSN-201, a gene therapy targeting X-linked retinoschisis (XLRS) currently in Phase I/II clinical trials, and to expand its innovative AAV.SPR capsid technology platform for inherited retinal diseases.

Notably, ATSN-201 recently earned Regenerative Medicine Advanced Therapy, Fast Track, Rare Pediatric Disease, and Orphan Drug designations from the FDA, reflecting its potential to address a significant unmet need for XLRS patients.

The company's pipeline also includes ATSN-101 for Leber Congenital Amaurosis type 1 (LCA1), which is moving toward a pivotal global trial in partnership with Nippon Shinyaku Co., Ltd.

As Patrick Ritschel, CEO of Atsena, stated,

“Closing our Series C marks a pivotal moment for Atsena as we advance our transformative ocular gene therapies and fuel our next phase of growth, innovation, and clinical progress. We appreciate the support of our investors and partners who share our vision of leveraging genetic medicine to reverse or prevent blindness.”

For a quick overview, see the table below summarizing regulatory designations for Atsena's clinical programs:

Program	Designations
ATSN-101 (LCA1)	Rare Pediatric Disease, Orphan Drug, Regenerative Medicine Advanced Therapy
ATSN-201 (XLRS)	Fast Track, Rare Pediatric Disease, Orphan Drug, Regenerative Medicine Advanced Therapy

Read more about Atsena's financing and clinical advancements in their official press release on Atsena Therapeutics' $150 million Series C financing, learn about their unique AAV.SPR capsid technology in this detailed update on the FDA designation for ATSN-201 gene therapy, and explore perspectives on the funding's regional impact via this North Carolina Biotechnology Center article on Atsena Therapeutics.

Durham and the broader Carolinas region are at the forefront of a massive infrastructure expansion to sustain the explosive growth in AI-driven data centers. Duke Energy has signed agreements to connect 2 GW of new data center capacity across its service area - a demand surge projected to accelerate from 2027 as tech giants seek the region's abundant carbon-free nuclear energy.

To meet these needs, Duke recently struck a landmark deal with GE Vernova for up to 11 advanced 7HA gas turbines, part of a strategy intertwining new natural gas plants, additional solar, and battery storage.

Despite projections for electricity demand in North Carolina to increase by up to 370% for data centers by 2030, recent research suggests much of this new load can be flexibly managed.

A study by Duke University and the Nicholas Institute finds that by curtailing just a small fraction of peak loads for brief periods, utilities could integrate up to 100 GW of new demand nationwide while minimizing costly overbuilds.

As utilities weigh investments in traditional and clean energy, the challenge will be balancing rapid infrastructure upgrades with innovative grid management.

As Duke Energy's CEO emphasized,

“Adding those resources is important in this decade, but we will continue working toward cleaner energy over time.”

For a breakdown of projected infrastructure strategies and capacity, see the table below, and explore the full scope of Duke Energy's turbine deal with GE Vernova in this POWER Magazine report on Duke's advanced turbine investment, insights into load management in the Nicholas Institute's flexible load growth analysis, and data center market trends at The News & Observer's deep dive on North Carolina's growth.

Strategy/Investment	Planned Capacity	Timeline
New Natural Gas Plants (Duke Energy)	~2.7 GW by 2038	2025–2038
Solar Additions	~2.85 GW	By 2038
Advanced Gas Turbines (GE Vernova)	Up to 11 units	2024–2028
Data Center Load Agreements	2 GW (signed Q3 2024)	2027–2029 ramp-up

The explosive growth of artificial intelligence is driving a surge in data center construction, making AI's carbon footprint an urgent concern both locally in North Carolina and globally.

Recent studies reveal that U.S. data centers - more than 3,600 nationwide, including over 80 in North Carolina - already account for roughly 2% of national energy demand, with projections as high as 10% by 2027.

These centers consume massive amounts of electricity and water, often straining local grids and increasing utility costs for residents, as regional infrastructure races to catch up with demand.

While leading cloud companies now invest heavily in infrastructure - Apple alone pledging $500 billion - and technological innovations such as more energy-efficient AI chips and smarter load management gain ground, policy experts urge greater transparency and strategic grid planning to avoid “digital extractivism” and unchecked emissions.

As one

energy consultant warns, “There is a significant risk of Southeast utilities overbuilding power plants and pipelines in response to projected data center energy demand. Utilities already are financially incentivized to overbuild infrastructure.”

Addressing these challenges requires new regulatory approaches, sustainable investment, and collaboration between AI firms, utilities, and policymakers.

For a detailed analysis of North Carolina's AI infrastructure debate, see this North Carolina study on powering the AI sector without new gas plants.

For broader national context, explore Marketplace's coverage of the AI data center energy boom and grid adaptation.

To learn how natural gas and other fuels are stepping in to meet immediate demand, read Data Center Dynamics' report on powering the US AI boom.

Key metrics are summarized below:

Metric	Value
US data centers (2025)	3,600+
NC data centers	82
Projected share of US energy demand (2027)	10%
Annual growth of data center market	~21%
Estimated increase in CO2 emissions by 2030	200 million tons
Increase in Google's data center emissions (2022–2023)	13%

Sustainable AI innovation - and informed local action - are essential as Durham and the world strive to balance technological progress with environmental responsibility.

Durham is solidifying its future as a hub for responsible AI innovation and inclusive growth, driven by robust state initiatives and a commitment to equity. North Carolina's rapid advancement in artificial intelligence is evident with the appointment of I-Sah Hsieh as the state's first AI governance and policy leader, signaling a pivotal step toward ethical advancement and strong regulatory frameworks (NCDIT appoints AI governance executive).

As the Triangle's data center infrastructure expands to support AI's powerful computational needs, energy and grid resilience remain critical - last year's ChatGPT usage alone consumed enough electricity for up to 30,000 homes, highlighting the urgent balance between tech progress and sustainability (North Carolina must balance AI and energy growth).

The state's Responsible Use of Artificial Intelligence Framework and leadership from institutions like Duke and Sanford are shaping inclusive and ethical policies, bridging education, equity, and economic vitality; as one expert noted,

“This is a moment of both challenge and opportunity. AI is here to stay, and at Sanford, we are making sure it works for everyone.”

(Sanford School's leadership in AI policy).

For those motivated to join this transformation, Durham boasts a range of accessible upskilling opportunities - such as Nucamp's affordable bootcamps in web, mobile, and cybersecurity - supported by flexible financing and scholarships, ensuring local talent is prepared to drive responsible innovation in the region's evolving tech landscape.