Technology leaders encouraged Iowa’s business and tech community to talk with lawmakers about artificial intelligence policy at the Technology Association of Iowa’s AI Public Policy Forum and legislative reception held Feb. 4 in Des Moines.
“Your constitutional right is to talk to your legislators, voice your opinion,” said Jennifer G. Young, CEO of the Technology Councils of North America, a federation of more than 60 technology councils and trade associations in the U.S. and Canada. “Go talk to them. Tell them what you do for a living. Offer to be a resource. Explain that you’re there. Invite them to your company. Come and see your company. Come see what we do. Let me explain to you what we do. Do that all the time. … It’s a fantastic way to engage. They need you as much as you need them.”
Iowa Lt. Gov. Chris Cournoyer said during the forum that good policy should “encourage innovation.”
“Our goal is to set smart, balanced policies that support creativity and innovation while earning the public’s trust and protecting data and privacy,” she said. “We have a real chance to shape how AI shows up in Iowa in a way that reflects our core values. … Most importantly, the best policy starts with real-world insight from the people building and using this technology every day, and that’s exactly what this forum is all about.”
Cournoyer said Iowa has an educated, adaptable workforce, nationally competitive industries and a tech ecosystem that continues to expand.
“But that opportunity comes with the responsibility to get it right and in so using it ethically and responsibly. We need to prepare our students and workforce for new roles and ensure that every community in our state benefits from this growth,” she said.
The most pressing impact of AI right now is the pace of change, said Joe Riesberg, senior vice president and chief information officer at EMC Insurance Cos.
“I liken it back to COVID,” Riesberg said. “You’d come out, you’d say, ‘Hey, this is what we think of the situation.’ And then two weeks later, change. I think the same is true in the AI space. It feels like every month there’s a new problem, a new security risk.”
Young echoed Riesberg in saying the speed of change for AI is top of mind.
“And I think government doesn’t move at the speed of change,” she said. “It doesn’t move that fast. So when you have a lot of state governments and the federal government looking at what kind of guardrails do we need to be putting on this, they don’t move fast enough to be adapted to that. … There’s just constant change and constant flow of information that’s going back and forth, that is just changing by the day, and it makes it really hard to do that job. It makes it really hard for them to make policy.”
Brian Waller, president of the Technology Association of Iowa, moderated the forum and asked what it means for Iowa to be competitive in AI.
Clay Allsop, manager of regional data centers for Google, pointed to its Council Bluffs data center, which he said continues to expand.
“Council Bluffs has continually been under construction for about 20 years,” he said. “We’ve continually invested in that site. … That is largely because we have a productive ecosystem, from the public policy space, with the state, with the local government. We have an energy partner that we can work with, so those are the things that helped accelerate Iowa, and particularly Council Bluffs.”
Riesberg said EMC will stay competitive at AI through team members truly embracing it.
“Because that’s where real change happens, is at the team level. So to me, it’s about creating an environment [where] we’re not afraid of the big AI in the sky, that we’re creating an opportunity,” he said. “So what does it mean to be competitive? Look, Iowa workforce is not only nice, but they’re hard working. They’re resilient. I think there’s a lot more tech talent in Iowa than we like to give it credit for.”
Riesberg said “very rarely” will AI “completely replace your job, but it is going to change your job.”
“This is the biggest disruption, in my opinion, in the 21st century,” he said.
Young said people need to be using tools to make their jobs better and faster.
“It’s a matter of changing a mindset around how you do your job versus, ‘Well, I’m not going to have a job in six months,’” she said.
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