Utah leaders unite academia, government, and industry to pioneer responsible AI, advancing policy, workforce training, and innovation while addressing ethics, regulation, and convergence of AI with quantum, robotics, biology, and behavioral sciences.
The Utah Responsible AI Community Consortium unveiled at the University Guest House at the University of Utah its AI Leadership Blueprint, a comprehensive, evidence-based guide for organizations looking to adopt generative AI responsibly. Designed for education institutions, workforce development leaders, businesses, and public agencies, the blueprint provides practical frameworks for governance, workforce training, risk management, and sustainable AI integration.
The blueprint addresses four key areas:
Margaret Busse, Executive Director of Utah’s Department of Commerce, emphasized Utah’s broader leadership in AI. Under her guidance, the state has created the Office of AI Policy, launched a Learning Lab to study emerging risks and innovations, and implemented regulatory mitigation pathways that balance innovation with consumer protection. Utah is also investing heavily in AI workforce development, with universities and K–12 programs integrating AI curriculum and internships to prepare the next generation of AI-savvy professionals.
Brady Young, Lead Artificial Intelligence Legal and Policy Analyst for the Utah Dept. of Commerce, noted the blueprint’s alignment with state-level AI legislation. “We want to hear from people on the ground—concerns about AI in education, impacts on kids, or innovative ideas—so we can translate them into actionable public policy,” he said.
Manish Parashar, Chair in Computational Science & Engineering, framed AI as a disruptive but manageable technology—one that, with the right frameworks, can deliver benefits while mitigating risks. Drawing on Clayton Christensen’s Innovator’s Dilemma, he explained that AI is reshaping not only applications and behaviors but also the underlying value structures of society.
He emphasized that generative AI is only one form of AI—a “brute force” model powered by vast data and compute—but innovation is also advancing in AI hardware (silicon), new architectures, and applications. The key challenge, he argued, is to look three to five years ahead and anticipate what forms of AI will emerge, who will build and use them, and what regulatory and workforce structures will be needed.
Parashar posed guiding questions:
He invoked Utah’s legacy of innovation—quoting a University of Utah alumnus and Turing Award winner: “The best way to predict the future is to invent it.” With that, he framed the panel discussion as a forward-looking exploration of how Utah can lead in inventing a responsible AI future.
Dr. Barclay Burns, Chief AI Officer at Utah Valley University, praised Utah as a place where leaders “combine good thinking and doing.” Looking three to five years ahead, he predicted that AI will not advance alone but through the convergence of multiple transformative technologies:
“AI and AI models are going to continue to change. Computer power is going to get a lot better, but you’re going to see quantum start to become much more mainstream. You’re going to see robotics emerging in some really robust ways, and things like digital biology.”
Burns argued that Utah has a unique opportunity to position itself at the center of this convergence—building an ecosystem that understands not just large language models, but also the implications of quantum, robotics, and digital biology.
Another frontier he identified is the role of the behavioral sciences in AI:
“The tool sets that people have developed over years of understanding humans are actually going to be turned to understanding the behavior of these AI agents and how AI agents interact with each other and how AI agents interact with humans.”
He called this a field where Utah’s interdisciplinary strengths could make it a global leader.
Finally, Dr. Burns stressed the human responsibility of AI leadership. With more than 1.8 million workers in Utah, he asked how leaders will ensure that both current workers and the next generation find meaning in the age of AI:
“What is our responsibility, not just for the machines and ensuring the machines behave ethically, but what is the ethical behavior of us as policy leaders, business leaders, government leaders, to make sure that our children have a world where they can still create, get jobs, and make a difference?”
Burns closed by underscoring that the biggest existential question for Utah is not only how AI behaves, but how society ensures its people still wake up each day with “meaningful jobs and meaningful work.”
Jefferson Moss, Executive Director of the Nucleus Institute and key consortium advisor, stressed the power of collaboration: “Bringing together people from different backgrounds into the same room and having meaningful conversations is what is necessary… I call it 'bumpability.' True innovation happens when you bump into each other in a room and spark new ideas. When you get people from different backgrounds that bump into each other and have a conversation and all of a sudden, it creates a spark."
Moss went on highlight AI’s transformative potential in healthcare, life sciences, energy, and transportation. "How do we use AI to better manage the grid? That's a critical element right now. And it is not just looking at needing power. Yes, we do, but how do we leverage the power we're already using in the right way? And so to me, it's the application of AI that gives us the reason to bring groups together, to create a spark and solve big problems."
The blueprint is flexible and widely applicable, from solopreneurs to large organizations, including templates, policy swipe files, and practical tools for immediate deployment. This initiative, alongside state partnerships with companies like NVIDIA, positions Utah as a national model for ethical, effective, and inclusive AI adoption.
