The pro-human pivot: Inside Utah’s $100M bet on the future of work

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Editor’s note: This is the first of three stories in a series that examines Utah’s approach to artificial intelligence and its ongoing governance.

LEHI — In the “Silicon Slopes,” the conversation around artificial intelligence is shifting. It’s no longer just about what the machines can do; it’s about what they should do.

As Utah Gov. Spencer Cox pushes a “pro-human” agenda, announced at the end of the 2025 Utah AI Summit in December, the state is quietly positioning itself as a global laboratory for ethical AI — led not by political rhetoric but by high-stakes pragmatism.

But for the average Utah family, the question remains: Is this a marketing buzzword, or a shield against job displacement? The two men at the center of this storm are Manish Parashar, the University of Utah’s inaugural chief AI officer, and Kevin Williams, CEO at Ascend, a leading Utah AI consultancy business and advisor to the state’s Responsible AI Initiative.

The goal of this $100-million pivot, according to these experts, is to ensure the human worker remains the protagonist of the story.

A calculator moment

For parents worried about their children’s education, Parashar offers a historical perspective. He compares the current AI anxiety to the introduction of the calculator.

“There was a lot of concern that it would take away the ability to do math,” Parashar says. “Instead, it allowed us to focus on things that were more important. AI accelerates the processes, but it allows us to focus on things that are uniquely human: intuition, creativity and imagining new solutions.”

Parashar, who leads the One-Utah Responsible AI Initiative, argues that the value of the human worker is moving away from “answering” and toward “initiating.”

“AI is a good way to come to a solution once you know what the problem is,” Parahsar explains. “But who initiates? Who asks the question, ‘Could this be better?’ That’s human. We are moving toward a world where curiosity is the ultimate future-proof skill.”