County staff presented a proposed policy to govern the county’s use of generative artificial intelligence, recommending training, access controls and data-protection measures before broader deployment.

"As a county, we want to adopt this technology," said Unidentified Speaker 3, a staff presenter, and "we want to do it in a safe responsible way." The staff member said the policy would restrict public access to generative AI websites until employees complete required training and are granted access under county-managed controls. "Once we adopt this policy, we're going to block all generative AI websites completely," the presenter said, adding that trained staff would be given approved access and sign-offs to avoid exposing sensitive data.

Staff described typical early uses as time-saving tasks — summarizing long proposals, drafting emails and checking factual details — but stressed the need to "trust and verify" because AI outputs pull from diverse online sources and are not automatically reliable. Presenters said a future phase could include integrating AI features into county applications (for example in the district attorney’s office, jail operations or health department), but that would follow IT review, training and a decision process to ensure private data remains secure.

Members asked whether the approach would be countywide and whether all departments would be required to train. The presenter said training modules and sign-off processes would be available to staff across departments and that the program is intended to reduce misuse and prevent uploading protected information into public AI services.

The item was discussed as a presentation and the transcript records questions and clarifications; the record does not show a final vote on adopting the policy during this meeting.