Providence Technology Group

FOLSOM, Calif. — A new school opening this fall in Folsom is set to change the traditional classroom dynamics with the use of artificial intelligence (AI). Named Alpha School, this innovative institution aims to tailor education to each student’s individual pace and academic level, offering a modern approach to learning. “Artificial intelligence has enabled us to turn the teacher-in-front-of-the-classroom model on its head. Now kids can be learning at exactly their own pace and their level,” said Mackenzie Price, co-founder of Alpha School. Keep Reading This Article at KCRA.com

Stephen Hawking, a British physicist and arguably the most famous man suffering from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), communicated with the world using a sensor installed in his glasses. That sensor used tiny movements of a single muscle in his cheek to select characters on a screen. Once he typed a full sentence at a rate of roughly one word per minute, the text was synthesized into speech by a DECtalk TC01 synthesizer, which gave him his iconic, robotic voice. Keep Reading This Article at Ars Technica

In the heart of Rancho Cordova, a quiet powerhouse is making waves in the global technology landscape. Solidigm, an independent U.S. subsidiary of SK hynix, is rapidly establishing itself as a hidden gem in STEM, specializing in advanced AI storage solutions. The company, famously referred to as a “billion-dollar startup,” was acquired from Intel in 2020. While the public might associate artificial intelligence with flashy apps and digital art, Solidigm’s executives reveal a deeper, more fundamental role in the AI ecosystem: securely and efficiently storing the vast amounts of data that fuel it all. To learn more about the billion-dollar company, technology reporter Christine Shelby visited with with three key executives – Gamil Cain, senior principal software engineer and product security...[Read More]

California is approaching the two year anniversary of Gov. Gavin Newsom signing a landmark executive order in September 2023 designed to organize the state’s governance of artificial intelligence technologies. Almost two years on, state Chief Information Officer Liana Bailey-Crimmins says the state’s use of AI is “moving forward” but that she’s encouraging agency heads to think carefully about the solutions they choose. She says she’s encouraging agencies to consider the “benefit, value and cost” of AI products, and to also consider technologies that don’t use AI. Keep Reading This Article at StateScoop

No one doubts that an artificial intelligence revolution is coming fast to the world of public pensions, but the first transformative signs in their pension portfolio operations will come from the private sector. Securities analysts, portfolio management companies and pension consultants will use AI tools to become more productive with fewer employees (at least once AI overcomes today’s hallucination stage). Complex data analytics and decision-making models are already being deployed by those on the cutting edge to exploit information advantages that enhance their performance — and eventually their value to pension portfolios. We’re not just talking about “personal information assistants.” Those who complacently expect that AI in their offices will essentially be a search engine on steroid...[Read More]

California uses algorithms to predict whether incarcerated people will commit crimes again. It has used predictive technology to deny 600,000 people unemployment benefits. Nonetheless, state administrators have concluded that not a single agency uses high-risk forms of automated decisionmaking technology. That’s according to a report the California Department of Technology provided to CalMatters after surveying nearly 200 state entities. The agencies are required by  legislation signed into law in 2023 to report annually if they use high-risk automated systems that can make decisions about people’s lives. “High-risk” means any system that can assist or replace human decisionmakers when it comes to encounters with the criminal justice system or whether people get access to housing, educatio...[Read More]

As lawmakers wade through a sea of budget cuts and make decisions about which state programs to slim down, several government technology projects managed to avoid the chopping block. Meanwhile, Gov. Gavin Newsomhas proposed paring down other initiatives, like Medi-Cal expansion, to plug California’s $12 billion deficit. Keep Reading This Article at MSN.com

As part of its artificial intelligence adoption strategy, the University of California, San Diego is leveraging existing data governance practices, but it’s also taking a fresh look at its approach to ensure internal data is properly vetted, used and protected. The university recently built its own suite of generative AI tools, called TritonGPT. One AI assistant being tested will allow staff to use natural language to ask questions and get answers based on institutional data that’s stored in an enterprise data warehouse used for analytics, says Brett Pollak, UC San Diego’s executive director of workplace technology and infrastructure services. Keep Reading This Article at EdTech Magazine

More Californians are talking to their therapists through a video screen or by phone than in person, marking a profound shift in how mental health care is delivered as record-setting numbers seek help. While patients and providers say teletherapy is effective and easier to get than in-person services, experts in the field noted that teletherapy often requires a skilled mental health practitioner trained to pick up subtle communication cues. Almost half of the roughly 4.8 million adults who visited a medical professional for mental health or substance use disorders in 2023 did so exclusively through teletherapy, according to a KFF Health News analysis of the latest data from UCLA’s California Health Interview Survey. Keep Reading This Article at KFF Health News

The US Air Force announced today it has selected Beale Air Force Base in California to host the service’s first “Aircraft Readiness Unit” dedicated to its future fleet of drone wingmen. The drones, dubbed Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA), have also begun ground testing ahead of a first flight expected this summer, the Air Force said in a press release. “Starting ground tests is a key milestone for the CCA Increment 1 program,” Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Allvin said in the release. “This phase bridges the gap between design and flight, reducing integration risks, boosting confidence, and laying the groundwork for a successful first flight and eventual fielding to the warfighter.” Keep Reading This Article at Breaking Defense

The website that lets Californians shop for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act, coveredca.com, has been sending sensitive data to LinkedIn, forensic testing by CalMatters has revealed. As visitors filled out forms on the website, trackers on the same pages told LinkedIn their answers to questions about whether they were blind, pregnant, or used a high number of prescription medications. The trackers also monitored whether the visitors said they were transgender or possible victims of domestic abuse. (See the data on our Github repo.) Keep Reading This Article at East Bay Times

In partnership with the county assessor’s office, the King County, Wash., IT team has used artificial intelligence (AI) in a prototype redaction service that can remove sensitive information that may appear in application documents submitted for the senior property tax exemption program. It has worked successfully on 96% of documents, says Director of Data Strategy and Operations Grace Preyapongpisan. The IT office also uses the software to read through documents and populate a database with information on how people have died. Keep Reading This Article at StateTech