StateScoop

When the Utah Office of AI Policy was established last year, officials understood that in order for the state to adopt artificial intelligence that serves residents equitably and transparently, it had to be built on sound governance and ethical principles.

Zach Boyd, the office’s director, said that’s why it partnered with the Aspen Institute’s Policy Academy on a yearlong collaboration designed to help state governments build responsible AI policy.

A report on the project, called “Implementing an AI Evaluation Framework,” was published last month. It outlines how Utah’s AI Office, one of the only state agencies in the nation solely dedicated to AI governance, can assess the efficacy of AI tools while also restoring public confidence in its regulation. The guidelines focus on fairness, transparency, privacy, accountability and human involvement.

“In our office, we try to bring a balance between optimism and caution. There’s so much potential, but also so many ways it can go wrong if we’re not careful,” Boyd said. “We’re not just doing this for the sake of innovation. We’re doing it to serve people better, and to do that, we have to earn and keep their trust