Providence Technology Group

A years-in-the-making California bill that would take a step toward regulating artificial intelligence and other automated systems used in hiring, work benefits and insurance claims is drawing fierce opposition from the business community and pushback from within the state government. The trade group representing some of San Francisco’s biggest technology companies has made killing the bill a top priority this legislative session, while the California Chamber of Commerce has come out against it, too. Keep Reading This Article at San Francisco Examiner  

Data brokers are required by California law to provide ways for consumers to request their data be deleted. But good luck finding them. More than 30 of the companies, which collect and sell consumers’ personal information, hid their deletion instructions from Google, according to a review by The Markup and CalMatters of hundreds of broker websites. This creates one more obstacle for consumers who want to delete their data. Keep Reading This Article at CalMatters

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday announced that California will partner with four major tech companies to boost generative AI education, resources and skills. Google, Adobe, IBM and Microsoft will work with the state to train California’s workforce for jobs in AI. The plan also includes preparing students in grades nine through 12, community colleges and the California State University System for careers in AI. Keep Reading This Article at KCRA.com

Scientists are putting button-sized QR codes on hundreds of bees as a way to better understand the insects and help save their declining populations. As pollinators, bees play a critical role in maintaining the health of U.S. agriculture, according to University of Oregon (UO) Associate Professor Lauren Ponisio. Be it coffee, almonds or a number of other crops, bees help ensure that those crop yields remain fruitful. Keep Reading This Article at FoxWeather.com

This week, San Jose city officials celebrated the graduation of the latest cohort of public employees from its AI Upskilling Program, a 10-week training course designed to help staff use artificial intelligence responsibly and effectively deliver services. Launched last year with San Jose State University, the AI-training program offers customized instruction for projects dealing with topics like infrastructure, transportation, health and human services and education. Keep Reading This Article at StateScoop.com

In the verdant hills of Washington state’s Palouse region, Andrew Nelson’s tractor hums through the wheat fields on his 7,500-acre farm. Inside the cab, he’s not gripping the steering wheel—he’s on a Zoom call or checking messages. A software engineer and fifth-generation farmer, Nelson, 41, is at the vanguard of a transformation that is changing the way we grow and harvest our food. The tractor isn’t only driving itself; its array of sensors, cameras, and analytic software is also constantly deciding where and when to spray fertilizer or whack weeds. Keep Reading This Article at MSN.com

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]