Annual Focus Forward conference looks to the future with talk of AI

Speakers not only discussed the rapidly evolving tech of AI itself, but also touched on issues of internet connectivity, cybersecurity and digital literacy.

U.S. Sens. Shelley Moore Capito and Joe Manchin each delivered remarks.

Capito, who serves on the Communications, Media and Broadband Subcommittee of the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, talked about the opportunities to bridge the broadband connectivity gap in West Virginia provided by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act.

“In that is a major investment in the state — it’s over $1 billion,” she said. “That investment is supposed to go to two very critical groups in our state: the unserved and the underserved.”

The state’s share of broadband expansion funds is expected to bring high-speed internet capabilities to more than 271,000 West Virginia households, Capito said.

Manchin, chair of the Senate Cybersecurity Subcommittee, said the emergence of AI presents challenges similar to those experienced at the dawn of the internet age.

“We found through the mistakes that were made that we never put guardrails up that would protect society as a whole. Anything and everything could get on there, and there was no filter,” he said. “So we’re trying to prevent making that same mistake with artificial intelligence.”

AI has the potential to shape and change countless economic sectors and industries for the better, Manchin said.

“We know with AI all the good it can do,” he said. “Health care, quality of life, food production, the defense of our country and our energy supply. But if it’s in the wrong hands for the wrong purpose, it can lead you into things that can be just as destructive as they are for the improvements it can make.”

Kimberley Williams, director of strategic engagement and innovation for Amazon Web Services, delivered the conference’s keynote address.

Williams pointed out that the organizers of Focus Forward have been contemplating AI since at least 2019.

“The 2019 Focus Forward theme was on artificial intelligence and machine learning and how that was going to impact the workforce,” she said. “In 2019, five years ago, before COVID, before some of the other technologies that have pushed us to where we are, this organization knew that something was happening with artificial intelligence.”

However, generative AI — systems capable of producing text, images and video — had not yet debuted in 2019, Williams said.

“The emergence of consumer-facing generative AI in late 2022 and then throughout 2023 — that has radically shifted the public conversation around the potential of AI,” she said. “It has democratized the ability to use AI, and it has certainly made every sector of the economy look and say, ‘What does this mean for me?’”

Researchers estimate that 80% of all current jobs will be impacted by generative AI in one form or another in the years ahead, Williams said.

“That’s both good news and bad news,” she said. “Generative AI will increase productivity. A lot of people view that as just the negative. ‘Oh it will take my job.’ But the reality of it is, it’s also creating jobs.”