Over the past few years, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been gradually implemented more and more in education, medicine, and even transportation. Now, AI may be stepping into the Texas capital.
The Texas State Artificial Intelligence Advisory Council, born out of Texas State House Bill (HB) 2060, was created in June 2023 to study how AI will affect the future of legal duties, jobs, and privileges of Texans. Tableau statistics reported that AI was first created between 1950 to 1956 to replicate human intelligence in machines. However, Forbes mentioned that in recent years, big steps have been made in the integration of AI into our everyday lives with tools such as language translation, virtual assistants, and personalized recommendations. Caroline Pinkston, an Advanced Placement English Language and Composition teacher at LASA, is learning how to get accustomed to the ways AI is becoming a normal part of our lives.
“Generative AI shows up in all of our lives, in ways that we don’t even recognize,” Pinkston said. “I’m interacting to some degree with AI anytime that I use Siri or Alexa or whatever else.”
Medium reported that while many functions of AI can be helpful, especially as a teacher with lesson planning, it can also be a dangerous weapon that limits our natural imagination. Junior Josie Bednar, president of LASA’s National English Honor Society chapter, is firmly against AI integration in schools.
“School is a place where you come to expand your mind,” Bednar said. “But if you use AI, it’s not your mind that’s being expanded. It could probably be useful for making lesson plans for teachers provided it was 100 percent true all the time, which it is not.”
According to the Center for an Informed Public, AI is taking over the classrooms, especially when it is a part of most search engines and websites. Despite its prevalence, only 23% of school districts are getting trained on how to use AI in a classroom environment. The lack of urgency to embrace AI may be because people are doubtful, a reaction that reminds some, like Pinkston, of previous times when new technology was met with skepticism.
“It’s comparable to asking someone in 1999 if personal laptops and the internet had a place in the classroom,” Pinkston said. “Even if you wanted to fight it, it was inevitable.”
According to the Advisory Council’s website, the possibility and danger of AI taking business opportunities sparked opinions among the community. Spencer Ward, a staff member for Rep. Giovanni Capriglione, sits on the Advisory Council. He said these concerns prompted the Texas House of Representatives to call for the creation of the AI Advisory Council.
“[The council] exists primarily to facilitate proper change in growth within tech and AI,” Ward said. “Ultimately, it’s an end-all-be-all way for the state government to coordinate with industry and figure out what is going on in the tech and AI realm.”
So far, five meetings have been held, as reported by the council’s website, which primarily focused on the Automated Decision Systems Inventory Report, a report of all of the systems or departments within the state government that don’t necessarily require humans. However, this raised questions about how the Texas government’s decision to regulate AI should play a role in schools.
“The goal of legislation would be to protect and provide safeguards for all consumers,” Ward said. “We want to make sure that we know what’s being taken of us and of our data.”
On the national level, consumer protection is at the core of many actions taken recently against AI, which was demonstrated by the Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights published by the Biden administration that was created in an effort to create guidelines about the extent to which automated systems can impact the public. At the state level, the hope is that the Texas AI Advisory Council is a step towards AI legislation in Texas. While the council itself cannot pass or make laws, Ward hopes that its presence would continue to assist Texas legislators as AI develops.
“This is going to be a year where we’re going to be providing recommendations constantly because technology is constant, and [making] changes every year, not every two years,” Ward said.
While people like Ward think Texas AI councils are imperative for our growing landscape, some believe AI management is more than a state issue. Pinkston explained that some believe the subject should be handled at multiple levels, including the national one.
“At the federal level, the government should be trying to regulate generative AI,” Pinkston said. “I don’t know that that’s the place for a state government.”
Because the Council is run by the Texas state government, all of the past meetings can be watched at the council’s website, aiadvisorycouncil.texas.gov, and members of the public can comment on the council’s work. For those wishing to watch the next meeting, or testify in front of the committee, the date of the next meeting can be found on the website above.
“There’s always room for public input and comment. A lot of [committee meetings] are invited testimony because we’re trying to structure the conversation for certain levels of industry,” Ward said. “So we don’t want to get a diluted conversation, but we do have, oftentimes, public testimony that is available to the public of their general concerns.”
