ASHWAUBENON, Wis. (WBAY) – On Wednesday, a bi-partisan task force of state lawmakers held a public hearing in Titletown on the use of artificial intelligence.

This comes as the state assembly prepares to vote on legislation as early as next year, which could place restrictions on the use of AI and create more oversight.

The hearing, which was held at Titletown Tech, was a chance for business leaders and members of the community to provide feedback. Many companies are already using Artificial Intelligence, but some issues have come up and lawmakers say it’s something they will address.

While protecting people’s privacy is the number one concern when it comes to artificial intelligence, lawmakers say it goes much deeper as the state has dealt with criminal activity using AI to generate child porn and even scam people using the identity of a trusted authority figure.

“A lot of politicians are kind of fearful that as we do interviews like this, they can take these clips, take our voices and manipulate it so it makes us say something that actually wasn’t said by us and obviously can hurt the reputation of not only ourselves but any average person that may have some sort of stature,” said Rep. Chris Gustafson, (R) Chair, Assembly Task Force on Artificial Intelligence.

The goal of the task force is to examine the use of various AI tools. This includes automated decision-making methods, facial recognition, and generative AI.

Rep. Lori Palmeri also has concerns about the technology being deployed responsibly and ethically.

“Things like bias and discrimination and some of the unintended consequences that come from the efficiencies that were originally intended and of course, concerns about guardrails for bad actors,” said Rep. Lori Palmeri, (D) Oshkosh.

Among those who spoke, was Brown County Executive Troy Streckenbach, who urged lawmakers to make a bigger investment in high-speed internet, which is necessary for access to AI programs.

“According to the federal government, all of Brown County has high-speed internet. I would ask you to visit the Town of Morrison and ask them on election night how great their internet is,” said Streckenbach.

Two more public hearings are scheduled in the weeks to come at UW Stout and in Madison. The governor has also created a task force on AI to examine its impact on the state’s workforce.

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