Gathered at the Utah Solutions Forum — a citizens’ assembly aiming to bridge the gap between policymakers and residents — 40 Utahns shared their thoughts, specifically on AI policy.
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A few stood and shared suggestions they felt would be most beneficial for Utah politicians to understand about AI and data centers:
“Learn from experts, not from lobbyists.”
“The public wants to know that policymakers know, understand and share our values.”
“I don’t want to feel like everything is rushed, like we’re in this race against China.”
The assembly, held Sept. 18, was only a “pilot,” said Catherine Eslinger, director of civic engagement for Mormon Women for Ethical Government. It is the first of its kind with such a small budget and team, though she hopes it will continue for years to come.
“We want this experience to give our delegates hope of finding new ways to engage — a creative way of getting out of the ‘two sides of an issue fighting about something,’ but instead, looking at an issue and finding a creative way to resolve it that maybe is neither one side or another,” said Eslinger, who was involved in the planning of the forum.
Eslinger said AI became the main topic of discussion for the conference by meticulous design.
“We chose AI because it was something that really impacts everyone, but people are not really in a particular partisan camp related to AI yet,” she said.
AI regulatory policy — and Utahns’ opinions about it
Whether AI and data centers are nonpartisan issues is up for debate, but one thing is certain: Utahns really care about it.
Participants at the event spent two days refining 10 solutions and suggestions. Of the 10, three were about good education, three were about Utah leaders’ due diligence to engage with the public, two were focused on accountability, and the final two were about oversight.
One recommendation — with 95% of attendees in agreement — is the “dedicated information hub.”
The hub would include links to AI policies regarding municipalities, public works and proposed projects. It would also include a calendar of votes, town meetings and proposals.
Another proposal, titled “AI education,” suggests creating AI literacy classes to educate legislators and citizens alike on the topic.
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Zach Boyd, director of the Office of Artificial Intelligence for the state of Utah, said having well-informed champions of the legislation is key to good policymaking.
“I know the Legislature has an AI working group that we interact with regularly to just talk through issues that we think need to be dealt with,” he said. “Whenever my office runs a policy recommendation, we also have a small custom working group for that policy recommendation that meets before, in the middle, and after we’re done with our policy preparation pipeline.”
Boyd also pointed to legislative interim committees — which happen throughout the year — to study items that will be important during the session.
“I’ve seen the Legislature tackling issues like deepfakes,” said Boyd. “There’s a lot of concerns about … misinformation spreading or about people being, you know, people being basically abused or otherwise damaged, having their reputations damage due to deepfakes.”
Boyd added he is working with the Legislature on regulating various areas of influence such as clinical AI in healthcare, how AI chatbots could be helping or harming children, and mental health with AI in general.
“So most of the work in the state is under the umbrella of this Pro-Human AI Initiative,” said Boyd.
“That’s run under the governor’s direction with two of the cabinet members. Overseeing the day-to-day of that. And then there are representatives from the different parts of the government that oversee those different aspects.”
“I try to make sure in all of these different regulated industries that we have clear, up-to-date, and reasonable regulatory guidelines so that positive economic development can move forward while bad actors still have appropriate accountability.”
What comes next
Eslinger said the recommendations the group created will be taken to elected officials at all levels — city, school boards, county and possibly the state.
“In a way, we’re helping to collect good information for them to be able to make other decisions about what policies can be implemented,” she said. “Is there a bill that’s needed? What kinds of things do people really want to see?”
Next, delegates will be invited to participate in advocating to elected officials themselves. “We’d love to be able to support them in figuring out how they could do that and what are effective ways to do that,” she said.
Austin Larson, a Logan resident and attendee, said, most importantly, he realized the importance of his opinion. “If you want to take the time to really understand the issue — to educate yourself — then you’d be a fool to not make your opinion known. Your Legislature wants to hear from you. They don’t know what’s going on unless you tell them. So do your research and then go make it known.”
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