FARGO (WDAY) – Cass County Commissioner Chad Peterson has been named to a national exploratory committee on artificial intelligence launched by the National Association of Counties (NACo).
The Artificial Intelligence (AI) Exploratory Committee will examine emerging policies, practices and potential applications and consequences of AI. The 15 committee members, representing county elected and appointed officials from across America, will focus on the lens of county governance policies and practices, operations and constituent services, public trust, privacy and security, and workforce productivity and skills development.
“It’s an incredible honor for me and Cass County to be considered for this position,” said Peterson. “From Grand Farm locally to the unmanned aircraft systems in Grand Forks, the state of North Dakota is set to lead the world in this growing space. Having a voice in the room offering input on policy could prove invaluable.”
The exploratory committee will work with cross-sector partners to examine AI in local government across a range of issue areas.
“Workforce shortages have affected everyone in both public and private sectors,” said Peterson. “In Cass County, leveraging AI could help remove mundane tasks and free up time to allow better delivery of personalized services to the public. That said, we must not allow it to become the default solution as our team has always prided ourselves on being accessible. Face-to-face interaction is what makes us what we are as a community. As we saw during the pandemic, removing that would be to our detriment.”
The exploratory committee will meet at NACo’s Annual Conference on July 22, with plans to meet both in person and virtually as work progresses.
