LLNL Experts Brief California Leaders on Rapid Evolution of Artificial Intelligence | Regional/CA News
Publish Date: 2026-03-19 03:00:00
Source Domain: www.independentnews.com
A small team from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) has been briefing state legislators and business leaders on the promise and peril of artificial computer intelligence — AI, as it is widely known.
AI is “spreading throughout society, throughout the economy,” said Caspar Donnison, an LLNL economist and member of the team.
“Both its capabilities and its risks have been accelerating at a rapid pace. You can’t ignore it.”
The briefings were prompted by interest from the Sacramento-based California Foundation for Commerce and Education (CFCE) and supported by the Livermore Lab Foundation (LLF).
CFCE is a nonprofit research organization associated with the California Chamber of Commerce. LLF is the nonprofit partner to LLNL, supporting science education and scientific research.
CFCE ’s goal was to “find scientists to help provide objective, neutral information” for legislators who have to consider legislation on complex topics, Donnison said in an interview with The Independent.
LLNL is seen as an honest information broker, he added. “People who are listening to these briefings know that there is no sort of agenda here.”
To date the team has briefed the Governor’s office, seven state legislators, a group of industry representatives and the Tri Valley business community.
The team developed a document to summarize its briefing: “AI in Eight Pages.” It is available online at: data-science.llnl.gov/sites/data_science/files/2026-01/ai-in-8-final_report_for_web.pdf.
In use, AI is varied and complex, but in general it can be described as a technology that allows computers to perform tasks that normally require human intelligence.
Instead of being programmed for every task, AI computers recognize patterns in data that let them make independent decisions or predictions.
Will that rapidly growing capability be a boon…
