California is leading the way in the adoption and development of GenAI technologies. GenAI is already changing the world, and California will play a pivotal role in defining that future. 

As part of Governor Newsom’s GenAI executive order, earlier this year, the Governor convened a summit on GenAI with leaders from across industries – including technology, labor, government, and academia – to discuss how the state can best use this transformative technology to better serve the people of California. California is home to 32 of the world’s 50 leading GenAI companies, high-impact research and education institutions, and a quarter of the technology’s patents and conference papers. 

State agencies and departments began analyzing potential uses for GenAI and developed critical challenges within state government, particularly focusing on issues that impact vulnerable populations. Today, the Governor announces the first step in the process to potentially adopt GenAI to address the following issues identified by state agencies:

• Easing homelessness and connecting people to treatment by better identifying available shelter and treatment beds, with GenAI solutions for a portable tool that the local jurisdictions can use for real-time access to treatment and shelter bed availability.
• Creating housing with more data and accountability by creating clearer insights into local permitting and development decisions and deploying tools to support every community in building enough homes for all its residents, including vulnerable populations. 
• Supporting the state budget by helping state budget analysts with faster and more efficient policy, fiscal analyses across state programs, and policies to spotlight shared needs and statewide opportunities for more efficient and effective deployment of the state’s budget resources.

These challenges follow the state’s May announcement of partnerships with leading companies for five specific challenges seeking GenAI solutions, including new proofs of concept to explore how GenAI could help address challenges like traffic congestion and language accessibility, and more. Earlier this month, Governor Newsom announced a first-of-its-kind partnership with NVIDIA to collaborate on cutting-edge AI efforts to support students, educators, and workers learn new skills. 

“The innovator community jumped at the chance to partner with the state to explore if GenAI can benefit our residents and our workforce,” said Government Operations Agency Secretary Amy Tong. “This overwhelming response, along with the ongoing work, shows us that we can embrace GenAI’s many opportunities while taking appropriate measures to approach it safely and responsibly.”

On September 26, the state will host developers of large language models (LLMs) to present demonstrations of the most current functional capabilities of their GenAI tools related to these challenge statements. This is not a formal procurement process but market research, often used by the state to identify what’s currently in the marketplace.