PRINCETON – The advantage of being a second term governor is that unencumbered by any reelection concerns, you can think ahead – far ahead.

On a rainy Monday morning, Phil Murphy was thinking about Mars.

A chemist using AI, or Artificial Intelligence, just figured out a way to create oxygen on Mars, the governor told a group at Princeton University. He said that without AI, that would have taken 2,000 years. He didn’t explain how that was calculated, but you got the point.

Murphy joined Christopher Eisgruber, the university president, to announce the creation of a regional innovation hub for AI at Princeton.

He called it a “pretty momentous day,” suggesting that years from now, New Jerseyans will look back at the hub’s creation with pride. In fact, he said the phrase, Artificial Intelligence, could be the key phrase of 2023.

The event also allowed the governor to do two things he often does – one serious, one not so serious.

Murphy enjoys touting the innovation and discoveries that have occurred in New Jersey dating back to Thomas Edison’s invention of the light bulb and before that, the establishment of Paterson as an industrial center.

Today, he was able to do that with relish. He said the new hub will be a place “for the world’s boldest and brightest” and that it will make New Jersey a leader in AI.

The governor added that AI researchers may be able to find cures for awful diseases, help cope with climate change and find better ways to educate students.

Referring again to Mars, Murphy said the possibilities are so staggering, “it’s hard to wrap your head around” them.

He said it took Jonas Salk two years before his polio vaccine was perfected in 1955. But who knows how quickly AI can develop similar vaccines?

The university said AI research at the new hub will be guided by discovery and serving society. The future is exciting – and popular.

It was noted at the press conference that university programs on AI attract crowds, some of whom wait in line to get in.

Eisgruber also announced that Princeton and the state will co-host a one-of-a-kind convening on AI at Princeton University on April 11.  This conference will bring together leaders from academia, industry, and government to discuss the most pressing AI issues of the day.

The hub, which will be created in conjunction with the New Jersey Economic Development Authority, will leverage state funding and private sector partnerships.

Monday’s event was at the Chancellor Green Library, which allowed the governor to make one of his more common, not very serious, observations..

Murphy remarked – approvingly – that over the long years of Princeton, the library was once a pub.