With a crowd of more than 900 people, the NASCIO Midyear Conference buzzed with energy about generative artificial intelligence, along with concern that humans remain in charge.

Generative AI can fill a room. The National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO) Midyear Conference attracted some 938 registered attendees. And that’s for a membership organization that represents 50 appointed tech officials. Not surprisingly, AI dominated the agenda — but not to the exclusion of longstanding NASCIO priorities of cybersecurity, workforce development, business transformation and data literacy.Government Technology was on the ground for the event in National Harbor, Md., led by Executive Editor Noelle Knell, Managing Editor Lauren Kinkade and Senior Staff Writer Thad Rueter. The trio joined the podcast to recap the full scope of the conference.

Show Notes

1. AI’s Accelerating Role: The rapid rise of generative AI to production-level implementation is surprising state tech leaders, prompting important policy and practice discussions about how best to integrate the technology in ethical decision-making and service delivery.
2. Data Literacy Imperative: Minnesota and Texas have pioneered innovative approaches to data literacy, which they see as fundamental to the future of state IT programs.
3. Cybersecurity Challenges: AI compounds cybersecurity challenges for states, while giving the public-sector IT community powerful new tools in combatting bad actors. Long a priority for NASCIO, state-level defenses against cyber threats have been aided by federal support and collaboration.
4. Future of Trusted Collaboration: NASCIO’s newly updated strategic plan emphasizes “trusted collaboration” as pivotal in navigating complex partnerships among public-, private- and civic- sector players.
5. AI and Workforce Development: The intersection of AI and workforce development puts a premium on attracting younger tech professionals to government by showcasing AI’s potential impact in public service and the opportunities for skill development.
6. Privacy and AI Ethics: State officials highlight the importance of addressing privacy concerns and ethical considerations in AI implementation, emphasizing compliance with record series laws and the imperative of building trust among citizens regarding AI use cases.

Links to stories related to this episode:

• Is Your State Data Literate? We Asked CIOs
• The Answer to Ransomware? ‘Doubling Down on the Fundamentals’
• NASCIO Speakers Pepper Their AI Optimism With Warnings
• Nevada Harnesses GenAI for Employment Claims Evaluation
• SLCGP Money Goes to Training, Assessments, Policy Development

Our editors used ChatGPT 4.0 to summarize the episode in bullet form to help create the show notes. The main image for this story was created using DALL-E 3.

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