The state's AI Task Force, preparing for potential legislation to submit to the General Assembly next month, received a report from the Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering on Wednesday indicating that even though artificial intelligence is still in its infancy, higher education institutions will likely need a centralized, high-powered computer center, which will require financial support from state government.
"It's definitely a common thing, I think, as we've been meeting with researchers and people around the state, the need for the compute power, the high-performance computing centers, that is something we need to look into," said state Sen. James Maroney, co-chairman of the task force. "It's three things: the high-performance computing center, compute power; data, high-quality data; and then workforce, training people."
"One of the hardest things is how do we manage the process?" state Sen. Tony Hwang, R-Fairfield and a task force member asked, noting that the General Assembly kicks off its short budget-adjustment session on Feb. 7. He warned that the AI landscape is changing quickly and possibly faster than the legislature can act.
Maroney said that regulations, growing businesses and workforce development seem to be coming into the focus of the task force. "In order to seek full adoption of AI in the state I think people need to feel safer with the use," Maroney said, noting that recent surveys indicate that 27 percent of the state has not connected to high-speed Internet.
Maroney said that a citizens AI academy and a small business AI academy are also being contemplated by the task force, to help the public adapt. Online courses for students and the general public to find out more, especially the ethical and responsible use of the technology, is important, he said.
David Pines, a University of Hartford professor who presented a new report on the development of AI among more than 100 business and educational entities — including five companies with more than 1,000 workers, 82 small businesses, six colleges and universities and six public school districts — said that most are in the "exploratory" stage of AI development.
"Large companies would call it that they are taking a pragmatic approach," Pines said. "They're definitely at the beginning stages of using AI. In general, they are relying on their own internal general policies."
While school teachers are finding it helpful in developing reading programs for their students who are both above and below grade level in their classrooms, businesses are very concerned about cybersecurity, Pines said. In the academic realm, plagiarism and cheating are among the challenges, as they deal with students who might be working less while letting AI generate their work.
"Across the board, I could say it three times — critical thinking, critical thinking, critical thinking is key," Pines said. "As one respondent said it's the human in the loop." A unique skill identified in the public school category of K-12, is the general awareness of AI. "That's probably an issue with some of our smaller companies, too, at this point."
Dealing with the so-called digital divide, as some wealthier school districts are in better position to embrace the technology than others that are under funded, the state needs to provide more guidance on best practices, the CASE report found, as respondents wanted to maximize good aspects of the technology and minimize the risks. "We don't want to increase that divide that already exists," Pines said.
Half of small businesses contacted by CASE are either using AI or expect to use it within the next five years, Pines said. "The other half don't even think they'll be using AI in the next five years. I would say more that they are unaware of what the benefits could be." Glitches in AI, called hallucinations, cannot be verified in many instances, so that fear is slowing down the acceptance of the technology in critical areas of business applications, Pines said.
A statewide campaign to alert residents to the importance of data privacy and cyber security are also desired by the large companies.
"Our ideas are not going to be the problem," said Nicholas Donofrio, a retired IBM executive and former chairman of the State Board of Regents who co-chairs the task force. "We're going to have plenty of them. Figuring out how to fund them, and get them done in a thoughtful way will become the issue." Donofrio said that with an early February deadline to report to the General Assembly, the task force is currently in its "wrap-up" phase. "Now the real fun begins as we try to synthesize a thought process to express our feelings, conclusions and observations."
"Ideas are free," Maroney said to the 60 people on the virtual meeting. "Implementation is priceless."
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