“How is AI going to do the least harm and do the most good?”

• Rob Lloyd, former Seattle chief technology officer who now heads the Center for Digital Government and the Center for Public Sector AI

“AI is proliferating at such a rapid pace that we not only need to look at, does this specific technology cause good, cause harm in this particular context, but where might it be spreading.”

• Arthur Jago, associate professor of management in the Milgard School of Business at the University of Washington Tacoma

The increasing use of artificial intelligence across various sectors has prompted policymakers and the public to confront difficult questions about trust, transparency and human oversight. That’s according to Arthur Jago and Rob Lloyd, who told Inside Olympia that AI could improve language access, emergency response and government efficiency, but warned policymakers must guard against discrimination, manipulation and overreliance on automated systems. Lloyd said public reaction to AI often hinges on whether people can still reach a human being when systems fail.

“When it works, people often are happier than had they worked with a person,” Lloyd said. “When it doesn’t work, they’re angrier than had they worked with a person. There is no middle.”