Priorities Podcast StateScoop

On this week's Priorities podcast, Code for America Chief Executive Officer Amanda Renteria explains how a recent chatbot project informed the creation of the organization's new AI Studio, which involves in-person and virtual workshops to explore the importance of testing and scaling AI tools. Code for America last year released an AI-powered chatbot for GetCalFresh, a digital enrollment assistant for California’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. While the chatbot was developed to respond to simple questions and direct users to relevant resources, Renteria says the process helped to inform goals and objectives of the new AI Studio. She also discusses the main takeaways of the Code For America Summit at the end of May, such as the primacy of AI for improving government services.





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StateScoop’s Priorities podcast is available every Thursday. Listen more here.
If you want to hear more of the latest across the state and local government technology community, subscribe to the Priorities podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Soundcloud, and Spotify.

Alongside concerns of cyberattacks and a growing interest in generative artificial intelligence, efforts to improve digital services are retaining status in the offices of state chief information officers. On this week's Priorities podcast, Ohio CIO Katrina Flory and New Hampshire CIO Denis Goulet share how their digital services efforts are maturing in 2024. Speaking last spring from the National Association of State Chief Information Officers midyear conference in National Harbor, Maryland, Flory says the state’s InnovateOhio platform is continually improving how it connects residents to government services, while providing agencies with better data. Goulet shares how New Hampshire’s multiyear effort to retool its online services started with evangelizing state agencies that were initially reluctant to participate.

Tracey Haslam, CEO of the recycler Full Circle Electronics, joins StateScoop’s Priorities podcast to discuss how her company helps government agencies dispose of e-waste responsibly and comply with data-destruction standards and other state policies. Haslam says e-waste can become a threat to the environment and human health if not properly treated. For government agencies, which dispose of millions of devices each year as they upgrade to modern systems, managing e-waste is a significant task.

StateScoop’s Priorities podcast is available every Thursday. Listen more here.
If you want to hear more of the latest across the state and local government technology community, subscribe to the Priorities podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Soundcloud, and Spotify.

John Blythe, director of cyber psychology at the English software company Immersive Labs, joins this week’s Priorities podcast to share the results of a recent study that revealed cybersecurity vulnerabilities in generative AI chatbots and why he believes that many cybersecurity training programs aren’t as effective as they could be. Blythe says one frequent mistake in cyber training programs is that their advice is too generic. Instead, he recommends “meeting people where they’re at” and framing training around personal issues they care about. “In cybersecurity, we focus on understanding what prevents people from engaging in cybersecurity best practices and how we can design interventions and training to tackle those psychological barriers,” Blythe says.

StateScoop’s Priorities podcast is available every Thursday. Listen more here.

If you want to hear more of the latest across the state and local government technology community, subscribe to the Priorities podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Soundcloud, and Spotify.

State CIOs are continuing their cautious embrace of generative artificial intelligence, along with all the opportunities and challenges it brings to government operations. On this week's Priorities podcast, two state chief information officers share updates on their latest efforts to improve their IT organizations, speaking from the midyear conference in National Harbor, Maryland, early this month, hosted by the National Association of State Chief Information Officers. Indiana CIO Tracy Barnes shares how he’s thinking about AI, cybersecurity and policy improvements. Later, Texas CIO Amanda Crawford shares how data literacy is a key part of her state's embrace of generative AI.

John Toney, Vermont's new chief information security officer, starts his day with threat intelligence briefs — reading, watching or listening to the latest cybersecurity news.

Toney, a former Secret Service special agent, joined Vermont's Agency of Digital Services last month, at a time when more sophisticated cyberattacks against state and local governments across the United States are on the rise, especially from foreign cybercriminals targeting critical infrastructure in rural communities, such as water facilities.

This week, Toney spoke with StateScoop reporter Sophia Fox-Sowell about some of the projects he's working on, including compliance and procurement. He also emphasized the importance of staying up to date with threat intelligence news and the need for proactive measures to address these growing cyber threats, including identifying vulnerabilities with regular scans, improving security protocols, and reducing operational redundancies through automation.