- Topics discussed at the hearing at the Capitol included use of AI in educational settings, its use in providing virtual health care advice, and how the power and water needs of AI could impact communities.
Artificial intelligence is becoming more and more entrenched in the daily lives of Mississippians, prompting the state’s Legislature to consider whether bills should be considered in the upcoming session to regulate its use.
Thursday afternoon, four professionals working with AI or who have knowledge of the technology spoke to the Artificial Intelligence Regulation Task Force. All agree that it might be too soon to tell if state and/or federal regulations are needed.
Topics discussed at the hearing at the Capitol included use of AI in educational settings, its use in providing virtual health care advice, and how the power and water needs of AI could impact communities.
AI is already being used by some education providers in the state.
Within the Pearl Public School District, Superintendent Chris Chism described how AI systems are used by teachers and students in certain learning settings. To ensure the data used by any AI model within the district stays secure, Chism said the district has been using an on-site server for the past year. Even though it is on district property, steps are taken to protect the identities of teachers and students by preventing publicly identifiable information from being stored on the server.
Chism clarified that when AI is used within the Pearl Public School District, it is not being used to grade papers. He also explained that the youngest of students are not provided access.
“Second graders don’t need to be playing with a GPT model,” Chism added. “But I think we also have to recognize that education beginning at the earliest most fundamental stages is also grounding our students in the ideologies and the logics of how they’re going to think about things later.”
While the use of AI in school districts is not currently widespread, Chism did suggest every school district work toward having at least one AI expert on staff.
“This is moving so fast, there’s no way to keep up if you don’t have somebody that’s on the front line of this,” Chism explained.
One of the biggest questions the task force had concerned whether there is a need for laws in relation to AI.
While providing penalties surrounding the use of AI for fraudulent purposes was proposed, for the most part, all four speakers suggested holding off on legislation at this point to avoid setting up roadblocks.
“But I do tend to agree with President Trump’s notion that federal regulation also stands the risk of stifling innovation, particularly at the consumer level and at the industrial level,” University of Florida professor Sid Dobrin said.
Establishing a facility for AI to operate is resource intensive. As such, Ethan Davis, Assistant Director at the Center for Practical Ethics at the University of Mississippi, suggested state leaders are caution in their consideration of its placement, noting the AI facilities established in parts of Arizona as an example. While that area has abundant solar power plants, its arid nature makes water scarce, which is necessary for cooling. Even in places with abundant water resources, care needs to be taken when considering power plant placement as well.
“Because I think we would all agree, you can’t just put a power plant anywhere,” Davis said. “You’ve got to be intentional about where you want to put that even though it’s a very necessary service.”
In terms of healthcare, AI could be used to address shortages in workers, but limitations remain. The use of the technology could help staff make better use of their time and therefore increase patient contact. There is even ongoing research at the University of Mississippi concerning the use of an AI bot to provide healthcare advice to patients in rural areas.
“I mean, mainly the Delta is where they’re starting this, but it’s Mississippi, there’s a lot of places that are rural,” Davis said.
As Brain Scarpelli, Executive Director of Connected Health Initiative, pointed out, transparency will be important as the use of AI and its effectiveness continues to grow.
Dorbin agrees, especially as it relates to how AI is used internationally.
“I think then that in terms of consumer protection we have to start looking at matters of privacy, data privacy, data sharing. Those become big concerns,” Dorbin said.
He pointed to the difference in how Amazon is using AI compared to TEMU as they attempt to compete in the American retail market.
Jeremy Pittari
Trump unveils deal to expand coverage and lower costs on obesity drugs
Shutdown progress in doubt as Democrats grow emboldened from election wins
