State lawmakers discussing the evolution of AI in cyber security

AUGUSTA, Ga. (WJBF) – A Georgia House Subcommittee met at the Georgia Cyber Center to discuss cyber security on Thursday.

“Artificial intelligence impacts every life, every day and we need to learn how to protect our citizens from nefarious actors, but also enable them and enable businesses to utilize the technology,” Georgia Senator Max Burns said.

“I wanted to see if you had insights across national boundaries– Canada or EU. Are you seeing things here that you should emulate, or you should avoid,” Senator Burns asked.

With the evolution of technology comes the challenge of staying up to speed on all new advancements especially when it comes to artificial intelligence. That’s the goal of the House Technology and Infrastructure Innovation Subcommittee on Artificial Intelligence.

“It is so difficult to maintain a pace that’s fast enough to stay ahead of the development in artificial intelligence. Part of the challenges that we have as state legislatures is providing some guidelines, some guardrails, some policies to not only provide the effective utilization of this technology. But also, the protection of the citizens,” Senator Burns said.

Some speakers like Ernesto Cortez say AI can be helpful, but in order for it to help it needs as much information on an individual as possible– And that can also be the dangerous part.

“The key point that we’re making is that your data, my data, everyone’s– is being promulgated out there at a faster and faster rate. The gentleman from the heritage foundation spoke and made some great points about how everything you do on the computer is being linked across different computers, that data is being collected when you walk around the city– there are security cameras that potentially pick you up. Where is all of that going?”

A question members of the Subcommittee hope to find answers to by attending discussions like the one on Thursday morning.

“We, as consumers, haven’t gotten really anything from tech. They’ve been too comfortable, so there’s a lot of new entrance, a lot of disruption happening– it’s going to bring about good things for consumers and the American people for sure,” Research Associate at the Heritage Foundation Jake Denton said.

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