Artificial Intelligence is not coming to Rhode Island; it’s here. And it’s the future. That’s the contention of the Rhode Island AI Task Force, a group of experts charged with developing a state strategy for the AI age.
“Artificial Intelligence is a force, not a fad,” Rhode Island Gov. Dan McKee told Ocean State Media. “Rhode Island must be prepared, not just to react to the changes AI brings, but to anticipate and leverage the opportunities it presents.”
The Rhode Island AI Task Force created by McKee in 2024 recently published its recommendations in a new report.
“Rhode Island has a rare opportunity to be a national leader with its responsible and inclusive state-wide AI implementation,” its authors write.
One of the recommendations is that state government lead by adopting AI, though that idea worries some concerned about enhanced surveillance.
“Any time a new technology emerges that can transform the workplace, we need to make sure that our government is able to use AI tools to its advantage,” McKee said. “We will be looking for ways not only to use AI to improve business practices, but also to train our staff to be comfortable and proficient with this new technology.”
Morning Host Luis Hernandez visited the Cyber Range at Rhode Island College to talk with two of the people behind the task force’s recommendations: Former Rhode Island Rep. Jim Langevin, now a distinguished chair at The Institute for Cybersecurity & Emerging Technologies at Rhode Island College, and Professor Tim Henry with the Department of Computer Science and Information Systems at RIC.
Interview Highlights
On why the state needs an AI policy
Former Rep. Jim Langevin: AI is here. AI has been around for a very long time. It just burst on the scene, the public domain, when ChatGPT became a thing, and now everybody has heard about AI. But it is going to touch and it is touching every aspect of our lives. Whether it’s in our personal lives or in education or in the field of the job market – you name it, it’s really having a profound effect and will more and more as time goes on. We wanted to make sure (Rhode Island Gov. Dan McKee most especially wanted to make sure) that Rhode Island is ready to take advantage of all the upsides of AI. But also recognizing that we need to be able to be prepared for any of the downsides. And so that was the mission of the task force.
The Rhode Island AI Task Force’s report said that Rhode Island has the opportunity to become a national leader in AI. On how the state can take advantage of that opportunity
Tim Henry: Rhode Island already has a very strong educational ecosystem, very collaborative. The state itself is collaborative between academia, government, industry and being small. Those two pieces together – the education and workforce development and our collaboration – really have the potential to let us quickly train our entire workforce so that whenever some organization says, “Where are we going to put our new offices, where are we going to start a new organization? I need somebody who can do AI.” Rhode Island will have a very well-developed workforce, a mature workforce that is understanding AI.
On how Rhode Island’s AI strategy could affect average Rhode Islanders
Langevin: The reality is that AI is here to stay, and it’s going to profoundly change the world, I believe, and we want it to be in a positive way. Just in the way that the internet has changed the world. It’s that kind of significant paradigm shift that I believe it will bring about.
And among our findings, we could have gone any different direction. We said that what will be best for Rhode Island is to make sure that we are producing AI-ready graduates, and that’s both K-12 and post-secondary education, as well as having an AI-ready workforce. So we’re preparing the workforce of the future
Also, (we want to) make sure that we’re preparing the workforce of today to make sure that they are well-positioned to do the jobs even more effectively than they’re doing right now. And one of the things that employers need is well-trained employees. That they can do the jobs that need to be done. That’s important for the companies that are here. But it’s also essential if we want to attract new business from outside the state. And one of the statistics that we found that really was profound and stood out for me and the other members of the task force was that in surveying employers in terms of who they’re going to be hiring, we found that over 70% of employers said that they would prefer to hire a new employee that has some AI skills but no experience, over someone that has a lot of experience but no AI skills. So that’s pretty telling. Could you imagine an employee, for example, that didn’t want to use computers or didn’t want to use the internet to do their job? They’d be significantly disadvantaged. It’s that kind of sea change that we want to make sure our employees are prepared for and not behind the eight ball.
One of the recommendations from the task force is that the state should test out AI in key government functions. On how state government should approach that
Langevin: First of all, I think the government should be leading by example in an ethical, responsible way. And so it’s both government using trusted AI tools and applications, but also making sure that, as a part of that, you have governance in place. It’s not just about putting anything out there, but making sure that the algorithms that are used, the data that is used, are unbiased.
We want to make sure that it’s done in the right way and that even the private sector industry could look to government to see how it’s doing it. I know that the governor has already had his team moving in that direction….When the governor created the AI Task Force, he also created an AI Center of Excellence. And then people, hopefully, will have a much better experience interacting with the government. It’s better for the employee because it’ll take a lot of the mundaneness out of their work. Hopefully, like pre-populating forms when somebody calls. And a better experience for the end-user, the customer.
