FRANKFORT, Ky. (FOX 56) — Kentucky lawmakers won’t be back in session for six months, but one big issue is already on their radar: artificial intelligence.
“We want to be thoughtful and responsible about tackling it, but if we don’t, it’s hard to put something back in a box. And so, I think this task force really wants to look at what’s some good legislation and good framework for government moving forward,” Sen. Amanda Mays Bledsoe (R-Lexington) told FOX 56 News.
The General Assembly approved the creation of an artificial intelligence task force during this year’s session, which Bledsoe co-chairs along with Rep. Josh Bray. The task force held its first meeting on Tuesday. The discussion spanned an overview of what AI is, how it got to this point, and an overview of steps other states are taking on the emerging technology. The head of the National Association of State Chief Information Officers told lawmakers 40 states passed some form of AI legislation this year, mostly creating task forces like this one, but some have taken a step further.
“They’re doing pilots, they’ve created test beds. They are sandboxing or controlling that. They are not deploying it widespread in the executive branch because of the many concerns,” Doug Robinson told members of the task force.
Those concerns were also shared by lawmakers weary of not only AI’s capacity for misinformation or fraud, but also what kind of energy demands will be needed, who owns generated content, how bias is controlled, and what regulation may look like between states, which is something the industry itself is asking for.
“We need law and regulation to play its appropriate role to ensure that everyone in the marketplace, that everyone in the ecosystem is abiding by certain basic safety and security standards,” Ryan Harkins, Microsoft’s senior director of public policy and US government affairs told lawmakers.
It will still be some time before there’s a sense of what Kentucky’s future AI legislation will look like, but lawmakers on this task force are hoping this is an opportunity to get a head start for when the session returns in 2025.
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