The overall goal is to “really promote a strategy and a standard approach that helps us implement AI technology within state government,” Pam Haase, chief of statewide technology policy for the California Department of Technology, said during Thursday’s CDT Vendor Forum. California hopes to expand the use of AI and is considering a statewide AI vendor pool. Among the takeaways:
- Not surprisingly, first among the state’s three objectives on AI policy is demonstrating how use of AI can improve the delivery of digital services for California. That’s the focus this fall, Haase said, indicating state officials have partnered with the Policy Lab at the Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society (CITRIS) and the Banatao Institute, which is “studying the various AI use cases and where we are with the state.” The lab is producing a report with recommendations to inform the state’s strategy and policy on AI adoption.
“So, we’re taking basically what we can already learn from industry and what’s already being done as our starting point here. And the purpose of the report and this particular objective is really to help state entities become aware of how AI can be valuable in the delivery of government services,” Haase said. - The state’s second and third objectives on AI policy are to offer guidelines for its ethical and responsible use; and provide a “practical and pragmatic approach” on its implementation, Haase said, indicating that with the former, the purpose is to engage the public and the Legislature “to help instill confidence and establish trust in the state’s ability to implement ethical AI.” The third objective’s purpose, Haase said, is to “help the state entities and the vendor community to have practical rules to support and drive ethical AI adoption.” State officials will be developing a playbook as a “how to go forward,” she added.
- On other policies, Haase reminded the nearly 300 who attended online that officials updated minimum cloud security requirements in the statewide PS-009 Cloud Security Standard on Aug. 26 and will soon be updating statewide Cybersecurity Maturity Metrics, to offer “additional scoring and an updated checklist.” On updating AI policies, Haase said: “We’re not going to write policy to write policy, but we expect there will be probably some guidelines in the policy framework around AI.”
