Durham, North Carolina Aug 20, 2026 (Issuewire.com) Professional Language Models Inc. (PLM), a Black owned, Durham-based company building a new model for decentralized, organization controlled artificial intelligence, today announced the sale of its first Enterprise PLM Node to the Hayti Heritage Center, the arts and cultural home of St. Josephs Historic Foundation. The transaction begins a partnership to explore an AI-powered knowledge ecosystem that preserves Haytis cultural and institutional knowledge while keeping stewardship of that knowledge within the community.
Partly owned by acclaimed Brooklyn rapper AZ, PLM is advancing a vision of AI in which people and institutions own, govern, and benefit from their intelligence. Its Enterprise PLM Node is an in-house AI server designed for individuals and organizations that want practical AI capabilities without sending their proprietary knowledge, internal records, or cultural archives into a third-party public model. The architecture is intended to give organizations stronger control over privacy, access, and the sources that inform AI responses, while helping reduce the cumulative cost of deploying AI across an organization.
Intelligence should not be artificial, said Brad Jones, CEO of Professional Language Models Inc. The most valuable intelligence in any institution is the
knowledge its people have developed, protected, and passed forward. The Hayti Heritage Center can now preserve its story as it should be toldby the community, with the community, and for generations still to come.
The Hayti Heritage Center operates in Durhams historic Hayti community, a post Reconstruction Black enclave that became a lasting center of culture, scholarship, entrepreneurship, and community life. The centers historic sanctuary opened as the Hayti Heritage Center in 1975 after the St. Josephs Historic Foundation helped preserve the former St. Josephs AME Church building from the threats of urban renewal. 1
For Hayti, the opportunity is not simply to adopt a new technology. It is to build a durable, community-governed way to capture oral histories, historical records, educational resources, program archives, and living expertisewhile establishing appropriate permissions and governance over who can access, contribute to, and benefit from that knowledge.
The Enterprise PLM Node will provide a foundation for the partners to explore carefully governed applications, including archival discovery, curriculum support, internal institutional knowledge, and preservation of community narratives. Rather than relying on open-ended AI outputs, the model is designed to ground answers in approved, organization-controlled source materials, make sources reviewable, and support a workflow in which unverified answers can be flagged or withheld. This approach is intended to materially reduce hallucination risk and protect the integrity of cultural knowledge; it does not replace archival review, human judgment, or responsible governance.
Haytis legacy is inseparable from Durhams history as a center of Black enterprise and self-determinationan ecosystem of Black-owned businesses, financial institutions, churches, schools, and families whose achievements helped establish the enduring idea of Black Wall Street. PLM and the Hayti Heritage Center see this partnership as a continuation of that legacy: an investment in the right of communities to preserve their own stories, control their own data, and shape how emerging technology serves their future.
Hayti has always been a place where history was made, Jones said. Now we are working to ensure that Hayti has a voice in shaping the future.
About Professional Language Models Inc.
Professional Language Models Inc. (PLM) is a Durham, North Carolina-based, Black owned company developing decentralized AI infrastructure for individuals and organizations. PLMs Enterprise PLM Nodes are designed to bring AI capabilities in-house, giving customers greater control over their intellectual property, institutional knowledge, privacy, and AI governance. PLMs work is guided by the belief that the future of AI should be more accountable, more accessible, and owned by the people and institutions whose knowledge powers it.
About Hayti Heritage Center
The Hayti Heritage Center, the arts and cultural home of St. Josephs Historic
Foundation, preserves and advances the heritage and culture of historic Hayti and the African American experience. Located at the gateway to Durhams historic Hayti District, the center is a living cultural anchor committed to Black scholarship, art, entrepreneurship, and community connection.
Media Contact Brad Jones
Chief Executive Officer, Professional Language Models Inc.
bpjones@plmmarket.com
Media Contact
Professional Language Models Inc.
9196280981
508 Simmons St
Source :Professional Language Models, Inc.
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