Local experts eye AI to help develop the future

MOSES LAKE — AI technology has been developing quickly over the last few years, with multiple avenues and questions arising regarding its use in everyday life. NCW Tech Alliance hopes to guide North Central Washington on how to utilize this technology as it continues to evolve. 

“AI is a general-purpose technology and so it’s much easier to understand what’s possible and the vastness of what opportunities there are in AI if you think about it in that way,” said Sue Kane, CEO of NCW Tech Alliance.  

The development of AI as a general-purpose technology is something she said was akin to that of the creation of the internet or even electricity, which is why there has been so much excitement, anticipation and anxiety about what it can bring for people. 

Large Language Models – also known as LLMs – are the most prevalent type of AI technology available and where it stands now, it is able to code, do automation and content creation, which can all be used to make time-absorbing tasks faster, she said. While this technology has existed in primitive forms in the past, in recent years they have had major breakthroughs in what they are capable of doing.  

Kane, along with Rob Ogburn, Executive Director of Business and Community Services at Central Washington University, came to the LEAD Summit at the Grant County Fairgrounds in November to share with community leaders how this technology can help develop the county into the future. Here, they explained the different categories of uses that AI can fall into and how they can be used to develop the Columbia Basin economically. 

“It could be that they’re building their own generative AI tools for that category or that purpose. It could also be that you’re contracting or purchasing licensed services to do that,” said Kane. “A lot of the work that we’re doing with the community, enterprises, organizations and stakeholders is really helping them to understand the types of services and categories of AI use.” 

Some of the categories of use that they highlighted at the event were content generation, automation, research and search, classification and extraction, analysis and forecasting and conversation and interaction. These can then be directly applied to basic functions such as using automation and research and search to scan state legislation for impact, processing applications or summarizing economic data. 

For an area such as Grant County with a legacy of strong industry presence in agriculture, healthcare, manufacturing, energy sectors and tourism, Kane said AI can help develop the region. AI can help sort through data and help leaders make a more informed decision on whether certain companies or ideas would make a good fit for the county or how they can best adjust to allow new developments in the county. 

She said it all comes down to AI sensing where an opportunity might be, how to seize the opportunity when it arises, and how the area can be transformed to best accommodate for growth. 

“AI is really great at thinking through logical progressions and putting together a timeline or a plan with milestones and being able to parse that out by specific stakeholders in different groups,” she said. “Tools that would help us to do that, seizing might help us with our planning and allow us to be able to imagine what does that look like to do development in Warden, Wilson Creek, Moses Lake and Quincy simultaneously and then what will be the things that we need to be able to make this happen.” 

The rise of AI has also brought about its own set of concerns about how the technology will be used and the ways it can negatively affect the world. Kane said these concerns are very reasonable to have. When any new technology gets introduced, it can be used for both good and bad, which makes it all the more important for people to be educated about the new tech quickly. 

“It’s very important for us to have questions and to carefully consider how we’re doing this with measures for safety and security,” she said. “I think from a standpoint of security, it’s really important for people to lean in and be learning and keeping up to speed with what’s happening with AI.” 

This all goes along with the goal at the NCW Tech Alliance, which is to help guide people through this ever-evolving technology and push AI to be used in a positive way. 

“NCW Tech Alliance, a regional nonprofit, wants to make sure that people are empowered to use technology for the ways that they live and work and find joy and play,” she said. “We’re helping lead the region to think about how we’re benefiting from technology, how we’re using technology to be able to further the goals of our communities and so we want to make sure that everybody has what they need to benefit from AI.” 

    Central Washington University Executive Director of Business and Community Services Rob Ogburn helps explain how AI can be utilized by local communities to develop into the future. Some of the ways AI can be used in developing a community is showing what education is needed to help grow certain industries.