Comité Science and Technology del Senado, 17 de marzo de 2026

Transcripción

78 turnos. Seleccione un tiempo para reproducir ese momento del video.

1. 0:15:55

   Chairman's discretion and, um, raise your hand if you're wearing green today. Anybody here wearing green? Some people wearing-- Some, some are not, some are, some are. Th-those that are not are, are grinning. Um, the...

2. 0:16:12

   He's g- g-gets a green pin, yeah. I am gonna, you know, s-some, s-some of our hearings, uh, start off in prayer. I'm gonna actually start this morning. Uh, some folks don't know the story of, uh, St. Pat. I'm gonna read the little, little thing on St. Patrick, and then we'll get started with the committee. Just an honor to, um, a great saint in our history. Um, St. Patrick, the apostle of the Irish, was born around the year 385 and was seized from his native Britain by Irish marauders and sold into slavery when he was 16 years old.

3. 0:16:43

   Though a son of a deacon and the grandson of a priest, it was not until his captivity that he sought the Lord with his whole heart. And in his confession, the testimony he wrote towards the end of his life, he says, "After I came to Ireland, every day I had to tend sheep, and many times a day I prayed, and the love of God and His fear came over me more and more, and my faith was strengthened." Patrick went on to say, "My spirit was so moved that in a single day I would say as many as 100 prayers, almost as many at night, and this even when I was s-staying in the woods and on the mountain. I would rise for prayer before daylight through snow, frost, rain, and felt no harm." Um, after six years of slavery in Ireland, P-St.

4. 0:17:21

   Patrick was guided by the Holy Spirit to make his escape, and afterwards he was guided to a monastic life in Auxerre, which is in modern-day France, under the guidance of Holy Bishop Germanus. After many years, in his mid-40s, he was ordained bishop and sent to Ireland once again about the year 432 to convert the Irish to Christ. His arduous labors bore so much fruit that within seven years, three bishops were sent from France to help him shepherd the flock. Quote, he said, "My brethren and sons whom I've baptized in the Lord, so many thousands of people," he said in his confession.

5. 0:17:53

   His apostolic work was not accomplished without much weariness and painfulness, long journeys throughout much country, many perils. He says his life was difficult and in danger of losing his life 12 times. Most notably, one night each year, the pagan Celts built a massive bonfire at their sacred Hill of Tara, uh, which required that every, uh, other fire in the whole island of Ireland would be extinguished as part of this pagan tradition. Having shared Christ with the High King of Ireland, St. Patrick boldly stood opposed to this pagan tradition and built a massive competing bonfire brazenly visible on a hilltop one mile away from the Hill of Tara.

6. 0:18:33

   The pagan priest raged to the High King that if Patrick's fire was not immediately extinguished, this fire of Jesus Christ would never be extinguished forever in all of Ireland. The High King himself, being deeply moved by the ministry of Patrick, denied the request and allowed Patrick's competing bonfire to continue. And so it was. When he came to Ireland as its enlightener, Ireland was a thoroughly pagan country. And when he ended his earthly life 29 years later on March 17th, 461 AD, the faith of Christ was established in every corner of Ireland.

7. 0:19:07

   And it's for that purpose we are wearing green today. So appreciate those who choose to do that. And if not, that's-- If, if you're not so moved, there's a history lesson for you. So, with that, we're gonna dispense of doing an opening prayer and recognize, um... Do I have the author here? S-Senator Thomas, Representative Thomas, come and, uh, uh, for 147, just wanna recognize you, um, to speak briefly. Um, and then I've got some other folks to speak to the bill.

8. 0:19:35

   Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Um, I-- my understanding is there may be a committee sub.

9. 0:19:39

   Indeed.

10. 0:19:39

    Um, I don't-- Could you read the LC number to make sure I have the correct-

11. 0:19:42

    Yes

12. 0:19:42

    ... LC number?

13. 0:19:43

    The LC number is LC 64102 S. Just if you could briefly talk about your intent in 147, I'll talk about the committee sub, and then we'll recognize some other folks to speak.

14. 0:19:53

    Thank you. I, um, I, I'm working off of LC 560266, just so you know, um, which is the original, was the original bill before the committee sub. Um, you know, I, I... The intent of this bill is to make sure that if it-- for us to know exactly what AI systems are making decisions, uh, when it comes-- Or not decisions necessarily, but are, um, making... Oh, uh, uh, uh, uh, Chairman Setzler, I think you actually said it better than I did when, uh, you and I talked earlier.

15. 0:20:26

    Uh, I wanna use the exact words you did because I, I think it was actually a better capture of what it was I was trying to say. Do, do you mind?

16. 0:20:33

    I will. And to, to the author, you know, the bill dealt with an inventory of AI and, um, really understanding what AI systems are being used by the state and a, and a, and a policy for, um, just to have a policy that, uh, the state has about AI systems. Essentially, um, the-- what we've done with the original version of, uh, um, 147 was we've kinda narrowed it down and the inventory that'll be required of the jor- of the State Technology Authority, which will be to only inventory those systems which inform mater- uh, uh, inform or materially support a conclusion, decision, or a judgment.

17. 0:21:13

    Thank you. And that's the, that was the key w- uh, words that I, that you all added in, in the sub that I didn't have in here, but I think it better captures the intent of what it was we were trying to work on. So I, I, I very much appreciate the, the clarification or tightening up that language.

18. 0:21:27

    Appreciate you initiating the process-

19. 0:21:29

    Yeah

20. 0:21:29

    ... and I will recognize some other folks to speak. But that's-

21. 0:21:30

    Yeah, absolutely

22. 0:21:31

    ... that's really the essence of this, is again, rather than the, the underlying bill, which would've required an inventory of every AI system, AI systems are used as utilities on desktop apps and just i- in many apps we touch. Rather than requiring that, really, if it, if it supports material decision or conclusion, um, and that's, th- those are really the only ones we really have an interest in 'cause those are really driving business and decisions.

23. 0:21:53

    I, I would agree with you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you. Uh, would you like me to just sit back here in the back?

24. 0:21:58

    Y-y-yeah.

25. 0:21:58

    Okay.

26. 0:21:59

    S-sit tight in case we have some other, uh, folks that, uh, have questions. Um, and that's really, um, gets down to section two of the bill. I'll take these in reverse order. Um- If I could have, uh, Technology Authority, uh, briefly. Um, you've reviewed this, um, section two. Uh, just, just generally share your thoughts, if you wouldn't mind, with the committee, and be prepared for questions.

27. 0:22:25

    Thank you. Good morning, Chairman, Committee. Cameron Fash. I'm the Director of Government Relations for the Georgia Technology Authority. We do appreciate the hard work that, uh, Chairman Thomas has devoted to AI over the last several sessions, and we thank you, uh, Chairman Setzler, for the substitute, uh, to this original legislation, which streamlines GTA's reporting requirements. As we all know, AI is transforming, uh, everything we interact with, whether we recognize it or not. But back in 2023, GTA did, uh, establish some enterprise-wide policies, standards, and guidelines, uh, for AI use by state agencies.

28. 0:23:00

    So as part of that framework, all agencies are required to submit, uh, or report their intent to use AI tools or systems to GTA prior to their implementation and receive approval before they can do so. Uh, but, so because of this, we already have a strong, uh, idea of what AI tools and systems are out there. But because of this change, the streamlining bill, uh, the streamlining, uh, will make it easier for GTA to inventory, uh, those tools that have the greatest impact on state systems and report back to you and the General Assembly.

29. 0:23:32

    Uh, and as far as, I would say, the, the section addressing the fair software licensing, we have met with the coalition, uh, but GTA remains neutral on, on that part.

30. 0:23:41

    Okay. Any questions for GTA? Any questions? Hearing none. Thank you.

31. 0:23:48

    Thank you.

32. 0:23:48

    Appreciate you very much.

33. 0:23:58

    I'll, I'll speak. Uh, uh, Representative, I'm sorry, Senator, if you could request to speak, I'll, we'll, we'll speak here. Could, could you push your button for me? Okay. Senator Wicks, y-your question was, uh, differences between the, the underlying bill and the sub.

34. 0:24:28

    Um, it's, uh, essentially the underlying bill would've required any AI system to be inventoried, which it would've mean, meant, you know, you, you've got in your, in your Microsoft desktop app, you've got these sort of burned-in AI systems. You, you, if employees use, they might use Google Search, and there might be an AI utility that's tied to Google Search. Those are things that are kind of used in the conventional use of computers these days.

35. 0:24:56

    Mm-hmm.

36. 0:24:57

    Um, we felt like that was going too far. What this looks at, if you can, uh, Senator, if you look at lines 39 through 40, we've limited, um, the inventory to, as it says on lines 39 and 40, "All systems that employ artificial intelligence," and then here's where it becomes operative, "which are used to inform or materially support a conclusion, decision, or judgment made by an agency." Um, now inasmuch as someone may do a Google AI search, and that may inform a decision, that's, that could be generally the case.

37. 0:25:31

    But what we're really trying to get at in the inventory is require an inventory of just those systems that are AI-empowered systems that drive primary decisions. If there's decisions for app, for apps that drive, uh, an investment decision for, uh, um, you know, um, um, like the retirement system that-that's AI infused, or if there's something else that's m-making AI-infused decisions around management or traffic flow or safety. You know, th-those quality and safety affecting kinds of things.

38. 0:26:01

    Those are really the things we're trying to drive at. That's why we talked about, um, materially support a conclusion, decision, or judgment. Um, feel like that's a little bit higher threshold than, than any system.

39. 0:26:12

    So, Mr. Chairman, my, but my... Okay, so from the original bill to the substitute, are we adding or taking away from the objective from the original bill?

40. 0:26:22

    Yeah.

41. 0:26:23

    That's the question. Um-

42. 0:26:24

    The, the, the, the-

43. 0:26:24

    From what line?

44. 0:26:25

    Yeah, the, the original bill would've required that any AI system used by any agency-

45. 0:26:32

    Okay

46. 0:26:32

    ... would be in the inventory, which would include AI on the phone perhaps of employees. You know, if you download a application, you know, uh, um, a search engine kind of thing like. We're, we're trying to not address those and really trying to address primary AI systems that are bought, purchased, and used, and employed as a p- as a decision support system as opposed to just a day-to-day utility. That's all. We felt like that was below the threshold. Yes, sir.

47. 0:27:02

    Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

48. 0:27:08

    Uh, th-thank you, Mr. Chairman.

49. 0:27:09

    Representative Thomas.

50. 0:27:09

    Appreciate it. Um, I, I think what it does, i-if I may, Senator, um, I think what it does is it takes the intent of what the language was meant to be, and it's really about how does AI systems affect our, our citizens in the state of Georgia. And it narrowly tailors this bill, meets the original intent, but nail it, ta- uh, tailors it down to where it really is just the systems that, that affect the decision-making process. And, and I think that's really what we were always trying to go after, a-and it was the biggest point of concern that, that came out of, uh, the AI subcommittee almost three years ago.

51. 0:27:43

    So, uh, so I, I actually, I very much appreciate this language, and I ver- consider it to be friendly, so.

52. 0:27:50

    Thank you.

53. 0:27:52

    Any further questions?

54. 0:27:53

    No, sir.

55. 0:27:54

    Okay. Thank you.

56. 0:27:55

    Yeah, thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

57. 0:27:57

    Um, chair would like to recognize Mr. Scott Drechsel from the Coalition for Fair Software Licensing. Welcome. Mr. Drechsel, give us a little bit about your background and share your perspective on the committee substitute.

58. 0:28:08

    Okay. Uh, thank you very much, uh, Mr. Chairman and members of the committee. Pardon me. My name is Scott Drexel, and I'm here on behalf of an organization called the Coalition for Fair Software Licensing. And, um, our organization is made up of North American companies from across sort of a cross-section of different industries including, um, technology, manufacturing, um, finance, banking, uh, uh, the, um, healthcare, um, a, a number of other, uh, uh, industries as well, um, all sort of focused around this idea that when an organization, particularly one that's, that's spending public dollars, is spending those, those dollars, that they shouldn't be locked into contracts for the purchase of software that do more than they think they're doing.

59. 0:28:56

    That, that, that hide goods and services, um, uh, you know, a- as sort of add-ons to the, the software that the organization's buying. So this was originally part of a bill called, uh, that was, uh, HB913, that passed out of, uh, Government Affairs. Um, and the purpose of H- HB913 is to ensure that when a state agency buys software, the contract doesn't artificially restrict where or how the software can be used. It means the agency would be free to run that software on whatever computer system or cloud services, uh, work best for its needs without being locked into one specific setup really artificially.

60. 0:29:36

    And where this arises from is, um, prior to 2019, the, the sort of model for the industry had been when you buy software, it is the customer's decision as to where they run that software. Um, it was sort of-- It was called BYOL, Bring Your Own License. So once the, the, the customer, in this case a public agency, bought that software, they were free to deploy that software either on a, a local, um, server, maybe in, in, in the closet, the way, way we used to do it, uh, or once we started really migrating to the cloud, it was their choice of, of which cloud they could run that in.

61. 0:30:08

    There were a couple larger software providers that, um, out of no particular, uh, technical requirements started saying, "Well, if you want to use this very popular software, you now need to do it on our cloud," which restricted the, the, the choice that any public agency had, which has resulted in, uh, drastically increasing prices and really, um, public agencies getting siloed with a smaller and smaller number of vendors. That has all kinds of, of negative implications from the, the cost, uh, implications that you don't have agencies that can realize cost savings through sort of smart bundling or spreading their, their, uh, contracts out.

62. 0:30:49

    And cybersecurity, really importantly, because when you silo all of your, your, uh, technology spend with fewer and fewer vendors, the, the cy- cyber resiliency takes a hit because all of a sudden a, a vulnerability in one becomes a vulnerability in all of them. So all this language does is it decouples the choice of, of software provider and the, uh, cloud provider. Um, if the state decides we want to realize cost savings by buying this particular software and also buying that particular provider's cloud services, that's okay as long as it's the choice of central IT.

63. 0:31:26

    It's not the, the vendor dictating to the customer how the dic- the customer uses the software that it's already purchased. Um, this legislation's been passed in six states already. There are, uh, about a dozen others, unfortunately about six this week that are, are, uh, in the final stages of adding it as well. Um, the Council of State Governments has, uh, adopted it as into their model language, as well as a number of other organizations as well. There are a handful of other industry groups that, um, have supported it from, uh, CCIA to, uh, ADI, and I'll, I'll stop throwing letters at you.

64. 0:32:01

    Um, thank you very much. I appreciate it.

65. 0:32:03

    Thank you. Any questions from members of the committee? Um, appreciate your, uh, efforts on this. You know, I, I think about, um, you know, there's not a infinite number of, I, I, I think in terms of operating systems, I know this is broader than just operating systems, but if you can imagine an operating system, there's not an infinite number, and there is some, some value in having consistency in, in systems across government and across even between co- government and constituents. Uh, and the idea that, uh, we're gonna get cl- blocked out from being able to use software by other software agreements seems, um, almost monopolistic, cer- certainly anti-competitive.

66. 0:32:44

    That, that's kinda what we're trying to, to recognize here, so. Um, and I'm, you know, I think people are sensitive to vendor bills. This is almost the sort of the anti-vendor bill. This is, this, this is the one that allows all vendors to kinda compete on equal playing ground.

67. 0:32:57

    Yes, sir.

68. 0:32:57

    Yeah. Any questions from members of the committee? Uh, thank you. Appreciate Mr. Drexel, appreciate you being here.

69. 0:33:04

    Thank you very much, Chairman. Thank you so much.

70. 0:33:04

    Um, our bill sponsor is had to leave. Um, any questions or discussion from, from, from members of the committee before the chair entertains a motion?

71. 0:33:17

    I'm gonna make a motion if we're at the time.

72. 0:33:18

    Uh, I think we're at that time.

73. 0:33:21

    Chairman, I'll, I'll make a motion to do pass on substitute for HB 147 LC 640102S.

74. 0:33:31

    I have a motion do pass. Do I have a second?

75. 0:33:33

    I second.

76. 0:33:34

    I have a second. Um, any discussion on the motion? Any amendments? Hearing none, um, I have a motion do pass HB 147 LC 4-- 640102S by committee substitute. Um, all those in favor signify fi- signify by saying aye.

77. 0:33:55

    Aye.

78. 0:33:56

    All opposed? Hearing none, it passed, and we stand adjourned. Thank you.