COLUMBIA — The state of South Carolina is formally stepping into the artificial intelligence era.
Earlier this summer, South Carolina’s Department of Administration — the agency responsible for overseeing the internal operations of the state’s sprawling, near-60,000 employee bureaucracy — announced the rollout of its first-ever comprehensive strategy on artificial intelligence with a goal to “responsibly harness the power and potential of AI to drive an era of greater prosperity for all citizens.”
The 17-page document, released to the public in June after meetings with more than 80 separate state agencies, establishes a ground-level framework for how state government will interact with and ultimately integrate the technology into the day-to-day operations of government.
The initial goals of the plan are fairly benign, with aspirations ranging from the “safe and effective delivery of citizen services” (think AI-powered chatbots on the state’s website for customer service, for example) to evaluating ways to deploy the tech in functions like workforce training and economic development.
The plan, developed in conjunction with national management consulting firm Gartner, also defines the need for the rights of consumers and the public as the state moves to adopt the technology.
Guiding principles include “fairness and objectivity” in the application of AI technology, ensuring transparency in the tech that is deployed and upholding that it is ultimately beneficial to the people the tech seeks to serve.
It also seeks to establish an accounting system to document every facet of government that artificial intelligence is deployed as it helps policymakers identify areas of “potential cost savings, improved service delivery and enhanced citizen experience.”
But it also pledges to ensure humans’ role in the operations of government continues to stay at the center of what they do — a need Department of Administration authors acknowledge in how they describe the tech.
“Whereas individual human intelligence is developed naturally, through years of passive and active learning, an AI tool’s intelligence is, at its origins, humanmade,” an early page of the plan reads. “Consequently, the strength of the intelligence itself reflects the parameters, directions and specifications imposed upon it by its creators and by how it is governed and deployed.”
Some state agencies already deploy artificial intelligence tech to a limited degree.
During a legislative oversight committee hearing earlier this summer, the S.C. Forestry Commission outlined how it uses artificial intelligence technology to identify “hot spots” in fighting forest fires, while the General Assembly had its first meetings of a newly formed select committee to evaluate potential policies to govern AI technology this past legislative session.
The state Department of Education, meanwhile, has already established standards around an AI curriculum in career and technical education curriculum released in spring 2023.
A broader rollout of artificial intelligence technology in state government will be more intentional, Department of Administration spokesperson Brooke Bailey wrote in an email.
The move will involve the use of an agency-staffed Center of Excellence as well as a state-led AI Advisory Group to facilitate conversations between government and the private sector about emerging AI technology trends and industry use cases that could apply to government work.
Nothing else can happen with the technology, she said, until they’ve thoroughly vetted what it would actually look like in action.
“While Admin is determined to continue collaborating with agencies to assess the potential use for AI technologies to enable continuous improvement for state government and, ultimately, citizens of South Carolina, the agency must first build a foundation that securely and safely embraces the power of AI in state government,” said Bailey.
