Artificial intelligence is gaining state lawmakers’ attention, and they have a lot of questions

HARTFORD, Conn. — As state lawmakers rush to get a handle on fast-evolving artificial intelligence technology, they’re often focusing first on their own state governments before imposing restrictions on the private sector. Just gathering that data to figure out what’s out there, who’s doing what,” said Heather Morton, a legislative analysist at NCSL who tracks artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, privacy and internet issues in state legislatures. “That is something that the states are trying to figure out within their own state borders.” Connecticut’s new law, which requires AI systems used by state agencies to be regularly scrutinized for possible unlawful discrimination, comes after an investigation by the Media Freedom and Information Access Clinic at Yale Law School determined AI is already being used to assign students to magnet schools, set bail and distribute welfare benefits, among other tasks. AI technology, the group said, “has spread throughout Connecticut’s government rapidly and largely unchecked, a development that’s not unique to this state.” Richard Eppink, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Idaho, testified before Congress in May about discovering, through a lawsuit, the “secret computerized algorithms” Idaho was using to assess people with developmental disabilities for federally funded health care services. In Hawaii, state Sen. Chris Lee, a Democrat, said lawmakers didn’t pass any legislation this year governing AI “simply because I think at the time, we didn’t know what to do.” Instead, the Hawaii House and Senate passed a resolution Lee proposed that urges Congress to adopt safety guidelines for the use of artificial intelligence and limit its application in the use of force by police and the military.