The California Department of Technology (CDT) and Department of General Services (DGS) hosted their annual IT Vendor Forum last week, with the state’s week-old announcement of an IT spending freeze casting a considerable pall over the 300 or so interested virtual attendees from the state IT vendor community.

A group of higher education academics said on Monday that while artificial intelligence (AI) does have its risks, universities and schools should be leveraging the tool to maximize student learning.  

Tarek Tomes, who serves the North Star State as the Commissioner of Minnesota IT Services (MNIT) and state Chief Information Officer (CIO), has adopted a unique formula for assessing state priorities for IT modernization efforts among state agencies.

The Biden-Harris Administration announced $277 million in grant funding to advance educational equity and innovation through the Education Innovation and Research (EIR) grant program.

The state of Kansas announced that applications are now open for the Advancing Digital Opportunities to Promote Technology (ADOPT) program. The ADOPT program will award $14.7 million in grant funding to organizations addressing the challenges of broadband accessibility, affordability, and device availability.

Though State of Washington CIO Bill Kehoe doesn’t lament his lack of operational responsibilities in that position, that makes his collaboration strategy all the more impressive.

Recognizing the struggles college students can face when trying to afford non-tuition costs like food, child care, and housing, the New Jersey Office of the Secretary of Higher Education (OSHE) has launched a free online navigation tool that will connect college students with a wide spectrum of basic needs resources.

To help ensure the safety of government officials and employees, Michigan will deploy proactive AI gun detection technology at the state capitol building in Lansing. According to ZeroEyes, the creators of the AI gun detection video analytics platform, Michigan is the first state in the nation to deploy the technology at its capitol.

In a bid to ensure consumer privacy and data protection, the California Privacy Protection Agency (CPPA) has released a draft of proposed regulations to govern automated decision-making technologies (ADMT).

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on Nov. 13 proposed to create a Schools and Libraries Cybersecurity Pilot Program in order to better protect K-12 schools from cyberattacks and threats to their infrastructure.