Taking a proactive approach to technology, cyber security and AI for New York’s future

With the onset of technological developments, cybersecurity threats and the establishment of Gov. Kathy Hochul’s Empire AI Consortium, city and state leaders are rushing to keep up with the sweeping pace of innovations. According to experts and lawmakers at City and State’s Government Innovation Summit – government can no longer play a “reactionary” role to these developments. Instead, they advocated for aggressive measures across both public and private sectors that will help face daily challenges and meet future ones. 

One example are major infrastructure projects,which remain key areas of innovation. Through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act, the Biden administration has allotted $1 trillion to fund infrastructure modernization – the Gateway Program’s Hudson Tunnel project being one of New York State’s most significant recipients, said keynote speaker Cordell Schachter, chief information officer of the U.S. Department of Transportation. 

With an additional $66 billion invested in national passenger railways, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law will aim to improve roadway safety across 1,000 communities, benefitting 800 airports and 450 ports, while helping 150 tribal nations receive funding for 450 transportation projects. But more importantly, Schachter stressed that investments in cybersecurity should remain a top priority across public and private sectors, urging organizations to use multi-factor authentication and software vulnerability patching. 

“We all need to work together to improve our resiliency and cybersecurity. U.S. critical infrastructure is under attack, just about every day,” Schachter told attendees at Baruch College, where the summit was held. “Nation states are increasingly the source of cyberattacks in crime conducted by ransomware adversaries that may be supported by nation states, or blackmailed victims. We need to be better prepared to respond when these events occur.” 

State Sen. Kristen Gonzalez, a panelist at the summit, shared insight into upcoming cybersecurity bills that aim to advance the state’s tech agenda. 

“I think the conversation around AI and cybersecurity go hand in hand, actually, especially as we think of our state government and protecting large amounts of data,” Gonzalez said. “Then take some of the risk frameworks that you've seen—that a lot of state governments are using to purchase technology, taking that, now that we've worked internally on government regulation, election regulation, to look at the private sector [with] that risk-based framework.” 

By collaborating with public and private actors, Gonzalez stressed that collaborative measures were central to positioning New York state as a leader in AI. According to Gonzalez, a lack of standardization across agencies is still one of the biggest barriers to data sharing. In order to prepare both current and future workforces for major shifts to AI, key investments in education, such as programs in SUNY, CUNY, even as early as K-12 will help build “clear pipelines.” 

“But I think the other thing is to prepare people who are in the middle of their career,” said Gonzalez. “We want to ensure that there are opportunities to upskill, and I think being an increasingly accessible thing is important. Having more job opportunities for folks who are mid-level but want to transition and learn more about new technology.”  

Gonzalez has often stressed the importance of AI education coupled with workforce protections. When addressing some of the stigmas and uncertainties related to AI, Gonzalez opted for a weighted approach. 

“We're taking the middle of the road approach. I think that the challenges to that are, these questions haven't been answered. We're all collectively figuring out what to do. […] That means it takes a long time to collect a lot of feedback, it takes a lot of conversations around upskilling, not only myself, but my own team on what this technology is, and why these bills are necessary,” Gonzalez told attendees.

In terms of modernizing infrastructure, panelists argued for the use of digitization to better organize budget constraints while prioritizing customer experience. But before agencies are ready to embrace new technology, organizing internal structures, from streamlining processes to robust training, must take place. 

“If your team is ready to go, and you focus on making sure that people are in the right place, that they're organized appropriately, that the processes are in place—technology comes later, it  becomes the easy part to implement once all the people are raring to go,” said panelist Michael Deutsch vice president of infrastructure and operations of the New York City Housing Authority. 

“Budget constraints are like a barrier, right? Deutsch asked attendees. “If you have a whole team behind you pushing together, it's a lot easier to open up those windows so that you can modernize the systems that you have.”