Penn State researchers shape Pennsylvania's AI policy framework
Penn State experts contributed to a major report on artificial intelligence policy released by the Pennsylvania Joint State Government Commission on January 28. The report offers recommendations for how the state should approach AI regulation across sectors including healthcare, agriculture, manufacturing, and education.
Jae Wan Ahn, Penn State's first Pennsylvania Legislative Science and Technology Policy Fellow, helped draft the report. His role involved translating complex research into language policymakers could understand and act on.
What the report recommends
The report covers more than 20 topics, from data privacy strategies to sector-specific AI applications. One finding appears across multiple chapters: generative AI tools should complement human oversight, not replace it.
"GenAI models have gotten too complex for us to fully understand and their answers could be inaccurate or biased," Ahn said. The recommendation isn't about job displacement fears. It's about the technical reality that these systems produce unreliable outputs.
The advisory committee made three primary recommendations:
- Pennsylvania should revisit and revise AI legislation as circumstances change, since policy templates don't yet exist for emerging technologies
- The state should establish a permanent commission with technical expertise to guide ongoing policy decisions
- Industry players should enhance transparency and accountability through measures like annual algorithmic audits or reporting requirements when AI replaces human roles
Ahn emphasized that preparation matters. He called for municipalities to strengthen cybersecurity before deploying AI tools and for the state to invest in AI literacy programs from K-12 through university.
What changes ahead
AI will alter work, education, and resource management across Pennsylvania. Farmers can use AI to optimize planting schedules based on weather analysis. Researchers can offload routine data tasks. Schools will need to teach students how to use AI while maintaining critical thinking.
The infrastructure demands pose an open question. Data centers require enormous amounts of energy and water. Electronic equipment has a short lifespan. Ahn said no state has yet solved how to maximize AI's benefits while limiting environmental damage.
The report provides Pennsylvania with options. Whether the state acts on them depends on decisions made in Harrisburg and Washington-not Silicon Valley.
Who contributed
Beyond Ahn, Penn State faculty on the advisory committee included Mehrdad Mahdavi (director of the Penn State AI Hub), Soundar R. Kumara (director of the Center for Applications of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning to Industry), Jeremy Blum, and Mary E. Ogidigben.
Research cited in the report came from Kelley Cotter on AI algorithms and literacy, and from Sarah Rajtmajer and Jonathan Dodge on human-computer interactions and algorithmic accountability.
The fellowship program itself emerged from work by Christine Kirchhoff and Stefan Peterson at Penn State's Law, Policy, and Engineering Initiative. Funding came from the National Conference of State Legislatures, Penn State's College of Information Sciences and Technology, and the Henry L. Hillman Foundation.
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