Washington State

Office of the Attorney General

Attorney General

Bob Ferguson

Artificial Intelligence Task Force

In 2024, the Washington State Legislature passed ESSB 5838, establishing an Artificial Intelligence (AI) Task Force, administered by the Attorney General's Office. This Task Force will assess current uses and trends of artificial intelligence and make recommendations to the Legislature regarding guidelines and potential legislation for the use of artificial intelligence systems.

The task force will convene technology experts, industry representatives, labor organizations, civil liberty groups and other stakeholders to discuss AI benefits and challenges. The Task Force will issue findings, guiding principles, and submit reports with policy recommendations. Additional details about the scope of the work assigned to the Task Force are below. 

Upcoming AI Task Force Meetings 

Stream the meeting on TVW, Washington’s broadcasting service, at this link: https://tvw.org/watch/?eventID=2024071136.

AI Task Force Meeting Zoom webinar information:

If you would like to provide public comments to the Task Force, please send an email to AI@atg.wa.gov. Written comments can be provided to the Task Force at any time; comments provided by 6:00 pm on Thursday, July 25, will be sent to Task Force members before the meeting begins. 

Participate in the Task Force

If you would like to provide public comments to the Task Force during a meeting, please email AI@atg.wa.gov at least 24 hours prior to a Task Force meeting. Written comments are accepted at any point, please send to AI@atg.wa.gov. Members of the public may participate in Task Force Subcommittee meetings at any point.

If you would like to sign up to receive updates about the AI Task Force, please contact AI@atg.wa.gov.

 

Per the state's public records act, please be aware that all correspondence submitted to the Attorney General's Office will become public record, and that under state law, public records are subject to public disclosure requests, and may be seen by other people.

Task Force Members:

The Task Force consists of 19 members representing agencies and entities specified by the Legislature.

  • Sen. Joe Nguyen, D-White Center
  • Sen. Matt Boehnke, R-Kennewick
  • Rep. Clyde Shavers, D-Clinton
  • Rep. Travis Couture, R-Allyn
  • Sheri Sawyer — Deputy Director of Policy & Outreach, Governor’s Office
  • PENDING- Attorney General’s Office
  • Rick Talbert — Senior Project Advisor, Auditor’s Office
  • Katy Ruckle —  State Chief Privacy Officer, Washington Technology Solutions
  • Dr. Magdalena Balazinska — Director, Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science and Engineering, University of Washington
  • Kelly Fukai — Chief Operating Officer, Washington Technology Industry Association
  • Ryan Harkins — Senior Director of Public Policy, Microsoft
  • Dr. Tee Sannon — Technology Policy Program Director, ACLU-Washington
  • Vicky Tamaru — buildJUSTLY
  • Paula Sardinas —  WA Build Back Black Alliance
  • Leah Koshiyama — Senior Director of Responsible AI & Tech, Salesforce
  • Crystal Leatherman — Washington Retail Association
  • Montana Miranda — Senior Manager of Government Affairs, Washington Hospitality Association
  • Cherika Carter — Secretary Treasurer, Washington State Labor Council, AFL-CIO
  • Chief Darrell Lowe — Redmond Police Department

Task Force Outcomes:

The Task Force must submit three reports to the Governor and Legislature:

  1. A preliminary report by December 31, 2024;
  2. An interim report by December 1, 2025; and
  3. A final report by July 1, 2026.

Task Force Subcommittees:

  1. Education and workforce development;
  2. Public safety and ethics;
  3. Health care and accessibility;
  4. Labor
  5. Government and public sector efficiency;
  6. State security and cybersecurity;
  7. Consumer protection and privacy; and
  8. Industry and innovation

The Task Force may create additional subcommittees as needed.

The Attorney General’s Office will also establish a Tribal advisory group and, separately, a Business advisory group co-chaired by Bob Battles of the Association of Washington Business and Patrick Connor of the National Federation of Independent Business to provide regular updates on issues specific to developing, deploying and using AI in businesses large and small across the state and across industries.

Task Force Work:

The Task Force is directed to examine a broad range of issues regarding artificial intelligence. The Task Force's findings and recommendations must include:

  • A literature review of public policy issues with artificial intelligence, including benefits and risks to the public broadly, historically excluded communities, and other identifiable groups, racial equity considerations, workforce impacts, and ethical concerns;
  • A review of existing protections under state and federal law for individual data and privacy rights, safety, civil rights, and intellectual property rights, and how federal, state, and local laws relating to artificial intelligence align, differ, conflict, and interact across levels of government;
  • A recommended set of guiding principles for artificial intelligence use informed by standards established by relevant bodies, including recommending a definition for ethical artificial intelligence and guiding principles;
  • Identification of high-risk uses of artificial intelligence, including those that may negatively affect safety or fundamental rights;
  • Opportunities to support and promote the innovation of artificial intelligence technologies through grants and incentives;
  • Recommendations on appropriate uses of and limitations on the use of artificial intelligence by state and local governments and the private sector;
  • Recommendations relating to the appropriate and legal use of training data;
  • Algorithmic discrimination issues which may occur when artificial intelligence systems are used and contribute to unjustified differential treatment or impacts disfavoring people on the basis of race, color, national origin, citizen or immigration status, families with children, creed, religious belief or affiliation, sex, marital status, the presence of any sensory, mental, or physical disability, age, honorably discharged veteran or military status, sexual orientation, gender expression or gender identity, or any other protected class under RCW 49.60.010 and recommendations to mitigate and protect against algorithmic discrimination;
  • Recommendations on minimizing unlawful discriminatory or biased outputs or applications;
  • Recommendations on prioritizing transparency so that the behavior and functional components artificial intelligence can be understood in order to enable the identification of performance issues, safety and privacy concerns, biases, exclusionary practices, and unintended outcomes;
  • Racial equity issues posed by artificial intelligence systems and ways to mitigate the concerns to build equity into the systems;
  • Civil liberties issues posed by artificial intelligence systems and civil rights and civil liberties protections to be incorporated into artificial intelligence systems;
  • Recommendations as to how the state should educate the public on the development and use of artificial intelligence, including information about data privacy and security, data collection and retention practices, use of individual data in machine learning, and intellectual property considerations regarding generative artificial intelligence;
  • A review of protections of personhood, including replicas of voice or likeness, in typical contract structures, and a review of artificial intelligence tools used to support employment decisions;
  • Proposed state guidelines for the use of artificial intelligence to inform the development, deployment, and use of artificial intelligence systems to:
  1. Retain appropriate human agency and oversight;
  2. Be subject to internal and external security testing of systems before public release for high-risk artificial intelligence systems;
  3. Protect data privacy and security;
  4. Promote appropriate transparency for consumers when they interact with artificial intelligence systems or products created by artificial intelligence; and
  5. Ensure accountability, considering oversight, impact assessment, auditability, and due diligence mechanisms;
  • A review of existing civil and criminal remedies for addressing potential harms resulting from the use of artificial intelligence systems and recommendations, if needed, for new means of enforcement and remedies; and
  • Recommendations for establishing an ongoing committee that must study emerging technologies not limited to artificial technology.