According to the governor’s office, the seven-member council will study and monitor all AI technology developed, employed or procured by state agencies.
The governor’s four appointees are legislated to include at least one publicly or privately employed person who is an academic with an ethics specialty and one who is a publicly or privately employed academic with an AI specialty.
They are:
- Texas A&M University System CIO Mark Stone, who has been with the system for almost 11 years.
- Rice University’s Angela Wilkins, executive director of the Ken Kennedy Institute. The Institute leads collaborative research on AI, data and computing.
- Cybersecurity expert Dean Teffer, who is chief technology officer for Cyber Sainik in Austin.
- Attorney John Bash, a former U.S. attorney. He is co-managing partner at Quinn Emanuel’s Trial Lawyers’ Austin office.
The AI council is charged with assessing the need for an AI code of ethics in state government, reviewing automated decision systems, evaluating risks and benefits associated with automated decision items and recommending administrative actions for state agencies to ensure AI systems are thoughtfully and ethically developed.
