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The Risk Apogee
The Risk Apogee is a 1:1 interview series, sponsored by Apogee Global RMS, featuring candid conversations with risk leaders serving small and mid-sized businesses and public sector organizations. Each episode explores how practitioners translate risk theory into practical action, focusing on real incidents, lessons learned, and frameworks that drive resilience in resource-constrained environments
The Risk Apogee
How Behavioral Security Is Rewriting the Human Risk Equation
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Most organizations still manage human risk by training employees and hoping the behavior changes. That approach has never been grounded in evidence, and AI is making it dangerously obsolete. Oz Alashe is the founder and CEO of CybSafe, a behavioral AI security company that treats human risk as a measurable, data-driven variable rather than a compliance checkbox.
A former lieutenant colonel in the British Army with a Special Forces and intelligence background, Oz brings an operator's discipline to a problem the industry has largely hand-waved. In this conversation, he and MK Palmore work through the tension between the speed of AI-driven transformation and the slower, harder work of establishing trust.
Oz explains why predictive behavioral analytics are now possible at scale, why scaling the shortcuts of your best salespeople through AI agents is a compounding risk, and why the security behavior ontology his team is building may finally connect human behavior to actual risk outcomes.
Things You Will Learn:
- Why treating human risk as a training problem produces no measurable risk reduction, and what an evidence-based behavioral approach looks like instead.
- How AI agents trained on human behavior are scaling organizational shortcuts at machine speed, creating compounding risk most enterprises haven't accounted for.
- Why the erosion of trust between humans, between humans and machines, and across authentication models, is the defining risk challenge of the next 18 months.
Tools & Frameworks Covered:
- Security Behavior Ontology: CybSafe's mapping of every security behavior through to every risk outcome and control, designed to move organizations beyond training-and-hope toward measurable behavioral risk management.
- OODA Loop as AI Tempo Accelerator: The application of John Boyd's Observe-Orient-Decide-Act framework to AI-enabled security operations, where the real advantage isn't scale or capacity but the speed of the decision loop itself.
- Behavioral Vulnerability as Risk Variable: The framework of treating human behavior as a measurable component of the vulnerability side of the risk equation, rather than treating awareness as a proxy for security.
#HumanRisk #BehavioralSecurity #EnterpriseRisk #AIAgents #RiskApogee
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Welcome to the Risk Apogee. Some episodes come together that you do not quite believe until the recording light comes on. This is one of those. On today's show, three guests, and any one of them would anchor a conversation on their own. The Honorable Aruna Miller, the 10th Lieutenant Governor of Maryland, a civil engineer by training and a former state legislator, she brings an operator's mindset to state government, shaped by actually building things before governing them. The honorable Harry Coker Jr., Maryland's Secretary of Commerce, and before that, America's national cyber director in the White House, Executive Director of the National Security Agency, and a retired United States Navy commander. And the Honorable Portia Wu, Maryland's Secretary of Labor, previously Managing Director of U.S. Public Policy at Microsoft, and a Senate-confirmed U.S. Assistant Secretary of Labor under President Obama. Three principles: cyber, commerce, and human capital. One conversation you are going to want to hear in full. This is the Risk Apogee. Let's get into it.
SPEAKER_00Welcome to the Risk Apogee, where we cut through the noise to get to the truth about risk. Cyber, physical, human. Every organization faces threats. What separates the ones that survive from the ones that don't is the decisions their leaders make under pressure. Each episode, we go inside the arena with the operators and strategists, shaping how organizations defend, adapt, and lead. This is the Risk Apogee.
SPEAKER_02Welcome to the Risk Apogee. Lieutenant Governor, Secretary Coker, Secretary Wu. Thanks for making time. We're here in lovely San Francisco on a wonderful day here in California. The RSA conference is pretty big. It's the biggest security conference in the world. Happens every year here in San Francisco. As you well know from our prior conversations, I'm a lover of all things state of Maryland, but was surprised to see such presence of the governor's team out here for RSA. Why is this conference so important to the state of Maryland? And why make a presence here?
SPEAKER_05Well, first off, MK, I want to thank you for inviting us on your show. And uh also want to thank you for your service to our nation in uniform. I know that you have a lot of uh connections to Maryland. You graduated from the Naval Academy. That is correct. As did Secretary Coker. So we um really excited to be with uh the both of you here. And also want to just say to your listeners, I hope they keep the men and women of our armed forces that are at war right now and their families and their thoughts, because anytime we put them at risk in harm's way, we need to really uh think about them every single day and do what we can to bring them home safely.
SPEAKER_02Agreed.
SPEAKER_05Yes. So thank you. Thank you for having me here. And so why are we at the RSA conference? I have to tell you, this is my second year coming here. Uh Secretary Coker has been inviting me. And the reason why is as you know, Maryland is a center for cybersecurity. We have everything there that is focused on cybersecurity, from having U.S. Cyber Command, NSA, 20 military installations, top-notch universities, a talent pool like none other. But here's the thing: we also know that the individuals that come here at the world's largest cybersecurity conference, they're going to be telling us a lot that we need to know. So we're here to learn, to listen, and to bring back some of these businesses back to the state of Maryland. We have a lot of innovators, entrepreneurs, startups, industry leaders that come here. We want to listen to exactly where they're seeing the cybersecurity threats right now. What do we need to learn from that? And that's what we want to take back to Maryland. And at the same time, we want to make sure that every one of the small businesses and companies that are here, they know that Maryland is looking to them to come and invest in the state of Maryland.
SPEAKER_02So you you touched on this in your response that um lots of startups, lots of technology companies have chosen Maryland as their headquarters and home. That hasn't always been the case, but I do know that there's been uh a focus and emphasis on it over the past, what, decade plus maybe? How has that worked out for the state of Maryland? Is that is that a good thing to have the presence of so many technology companies in your backyard?
SPEAKER_05It absolutely is. I can tell you that uh Governor Moore, through his leadership, has been very intentional about the lighthouse sectors that he's focusing on. And that includes cybersecurity, AI, uh, life sciences, quantum. So we and aerospace, these are the areas that we believe that we should be focusing on. So we've been intentional to make sure that we can create an, you know, an environment, an ecosystem where they can come and thrive. I'll let Secretary Coker talk a little bit more about what his department's doing.
SPEAKER_03And uh I want to emphasize that Maryland is here uh at such high levels, unlike any other state. Uh I don't know that any other state has their lieutenant governor here and two cabinet secretaries. And we're not just here for show. As Lieutenant Governor said, we're here to learn, but we also want to signal uh to partners and potential partners that Maryland is serious about cybersecurity, uh, serious about cybersecurity in general, right? But also about cybersecurity companies, the invest uh situated, which is in the state of Maryland. Uh, given our talent that Secretary Wu will will talk to, and given the military installations, you've already heard the Lieutenant Governor uh talk about, and then our uh proximity to policymakers in Washington, D.C. makes Maryland the the optimal location for cybersecurity. But with regards to tech companies uh coming to Maryland, uh it's it's the win-win situation. Uh they get access to the assets that we have, and they get and and we get access to the capabilities that those companies have. Uh once upon a time, it was said that Maryland had was asset rich and strategy poor. Uh that's no longer the case. You mentioned 10 years ago, I'll go back to when Tenant Governor Miller and Governor Moore stood up this administration. There was an emphasis uh that remains on developing a robust, competitive, and what's key, equitable economy. Robust, competitive, and equitable. Uh, we want an economy, and we're developing an economy where no Marylander is left behind. Regardless of their zip code uh growing up or where they currently live. We want opportunities for all of Maryland. So that means small businesses, medium-sized businesses, large businesses, we're not turning any businesses around either away. All right.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. It's noticeable. Uh, and and I think it's something to be applauded. Uh, and you're absolutely right. This conference oftentimes brings, I think, the heavy hitters from a technology perspective, but not always the government perspective. Uh, folks don't necessarily have an appreciation for all that happens here within the ecosystem of Silicon Valley. Uh, and it's nice to see uh that you all do. Both you and I have a very long background in cybersecurity matters. The landscape continues to be treacherous. Things are changing, but technology as always is uh is advancing mightily. How about some observations just of the cybersecurity landscape? What what what do you see that are the things that maybe we're doing right and maybe some things that we need to be changing?
SPEAKER_03Well, one thing that uh is consistent technology continues to outpace laws, regulations, and policies. That's cost we pay uh for technology technology evolving, uh, which we need, uh, but we need to recognize it's it's moving faster than regulations and policy are. But it's it's a good thing in that technology is also increasing uh the quality of life in in many ways. So with regards to cybersecurity, uh what I continue to see is that speed is being optimized. And cybersecurity right now operates and will continue to operate faster than human beings can, especially uh with the advent of artificial intelligence. Machine learning's been used for quite some time. Yeah. For for a long, long time. Uh artificial intelligence has been in play and it's uh a bigger player now. What that means in cybersecurity is people cannot be in the loop uh on cybersecurity. If people are in the loop, uh we've lost that that uh that advantage. There's more talk, not enough action yet, on cyber resilience. I was at an event in New York a few months back, and one of the retired senior law enforcement officials talked about cybersecurity, and that the analogy was consider it your home, and we're busy in cybersecurity, closing the windows and locking the doors to keep the bad people out. Then that very respected senior said, but the burglars are already inside the house. The burglars are already inside the house. That's uh an uncomfortable truth, but that's our reality. Uh so cyber resilience is addressing that uncomfortable truth that the burglars are inside the house. So, yes, we need to close the windows, lock the doors, but we also need to get the burglars outside of the house, and we need to be able to live in that house while we get the burglars out. That's what cyber resilience is all about: being able to operate through the compromises that will inevitably happen. That's what cyber resilience is, and that's what we need to figure out.
SPEAKER_02So there's a lot to unpack with resilience. You touched upon AI. I do want to get back to that. But because you brought up artificial intelligence in general, I think that from a disruptive technology standpoint, it's the topic de jour. It is governing and dominating not just technology conversations, but workforce conversations. I'm curious as to how you, Secretary Wu and the state of Maryland, are thinking about building a workforce of the future that's ready for the change that's literally happening underneath of our feet.
SPEAKER_04Well, thank you so much, MK. And absolutely uh that resilience, a key part of it must be a workforce. Maryland is really well positioned here, right? We have hundreds of thousands of individuals with cybersecurity backgrounds, with clear, cleared backgrounds. We're graduating, you know, some of the top talent in this country. And of course, because of NSA, Cyber Command, all the institutions we have, we have a lot of very experienced professionals. What does that mean in an age of AI? We're seeing across the country, not just in Maryland, a sharp fall-off in hiring for entry-level cybersecurity roles. And I think some of the thinking is, oh, well, now um do we need that many SOC analysts? We can have AI do a lot of those tasks, more routine tasks, a lot of compliance tasks. But I think what's missing there is really the contextualization, right? For mid-level talent to operate some of these AI tools, they still need to understand what are the goals they're trying to achieve, what does security mean in my particular industry or for my particular company? And if we don't continue to grow the junior level talent so they can have that understanding, so they can have effective deployment, then we will be shooting ourselves in the foot. So I do think this is a moment at which all of us need to work together: private sector, government, higher education institutions, because we're still graduating the students, but to say, how do we help them get new experience? Because an entry-level job and what it means is changing under our feet. So, how do we provide that hands-on experience? Some of the things we've been working with in the state is actually we just uh announced the first ever set of cyber and AI clinics. There are ones that are been across the nation, but we're the first ones as a state to put state funds into supporting, and we're going to have three regional clinics across Maryland. So we basically have statewide coverage. And the idea is to give current students and new graduates the chance to have that hands-on cybersecurity experience using some of the newer AI tools. We'll see.
SPEAKER_02We're all learning as we're there particular institutions that are participating in this program?
SPEAKER_04Actually, it's going to be across the state. We have a bunch of different, three different regional hubs. I don't want to name one or two, because then I'll leave out a bunch of others and their feelings will be hurt. Uh, but I will say what one thing we really pushed for in this case is because we sometimes see one four-year institution stand something up. And with the kinds of threats that we're seeing, as Secretary Coke was saying, like it is an ecosystem response that we need to have. So we really said, you're welcome to come in and apply, but you have to work with other universities. We're not doing these standalones. Work together. All our students and our workforce have to become upskilled this way.
SPEAKER_02So as you all talk about the ecosystem that's been created in the state of Maryland, I think about the ecosystem here in Silicon Valley and how it's it's ripe for innovation. It's ripe for the opportunity to have folks dive into different areas on the technology landscape. Um, I think you guys are uniquely positioned when you think about some of the government entities that are, again, in your backyard operating and provide access. I I tell folks all the time, I I mentor quite a bit in the cybersecurity field. And I tell folks all the time that government or public sector work is a great place to start your cybersecurity careers because I think that there's I don't think there's a parallel of a workforce that really understands the need to both educate and provide real world experience like the public sector does. Are you thinking about reframing public sector jobs and cyber or and technology in general? Does that play a role in how you're thinking about the future long-term success of it?
SPEAKER_04Well, certainly one reason um we work closely with our Department of Information Technology uh do it to think about that because frankly, that is like you said, you have to sort of be a jack of all trades. When you're a public sector, we don't have the resources. You don't have the opportunity to specialize in a deep way. But what that can mean is you can get experience across a host of contexts in a much faster way in the public sector sometimes. But you have to be very intentional about that. Right. And I think um we are looking at, for example, thinking we have Maryland has this wonderful service year program. We think about how we can have young people get that experience working with our departments um internally. Also, we know it's not just state, but it's local governments are very challenged in meeting their cybersecurity needs. So we have been thinking about how we can as the state support meeting some of those cyber needs um with that up-and-coming workforce. Absolutely.
SPEAKER_03And as you know, everyone needs cybersecurity. Right. So one of the great things that that our state is doing under our wonderful department of uh IT uh leadership, uh Secretary Savage, is making sure that all of our state employees have a certain level of acumen in cybersecurity because we all need to do it because it touches on all of us. The other thing I want to add about public service and and cybersecurity. Given the the nature of cybersecurity and a threat to our nation to include our economy, it can still be public service working for the private sector. Cybersecurity impacts the nation. Right. So uh public service is no longer limited to being a the public employee. Cybersecurity is part of our national security, public sector or private sector. So that's one thing we have to leverage. And you know, I've worked in places where if an individual left you know the good old public service and went to the private sector, they were PG for signing out of drive. That's no longer the case. We want people to go public sector, private sector, and that and bring best practices whichever way they go.
SPEAKER_02It took a long time for the public sector to get to that point, though, I think.
SPEAKER_03Absolutely. But but that's where we are and that's where we're gonna be. The nation cannot succeed in cybersecurity without the private sector. And that's and as you said, that's uh it was a tough journey right now for folks to understand, but that's the reality.
SPEAKER_02So um uh we touched upon AI, its disruptive nature. I'm bullish on the topic uh as a business owner. I love the things that are available um to me, the efficiencies, the capability sets, the fact that I don't have to hire 10 bodies to do uh projects that, you know, um before even a year ago would require you to hire folks permanently or on project in order to get things across the finish line. Lieutenant Governor, how are you guys thinking about the implementation of AI technologies in the government to create efficiencies and to and to try and streamline processes and essentially make government work faster and better?
SPEAKER_05Is that a fairly as uh Secretary Coker says, look, uh, the public sector also wants to be efficient as much as possible. But the difference is that we're serving 6.3 Marylanders all their needs, right? And that we're not just focused on one particular demographic. So in the state government, what we're doing under Governor Moore's leadership is we're making sure that the guardrails are set in place for AI to be implemented, right? That it's got to be equitable, it's gotta be ethical as we move forward. And there are certainly areas in which we can decrease the monotony of nature of certain tasks that are related to government employees. And really that frees them up to be able to do other things so we can deliver more efficiently for Marylanders. At the end of the day, that's what we want to do. Make sure that our citizens are able to access the information they need, get the results that they need faster. For example, deploying AI in our permitting process. Now, anytime an individual is seeking a permit, as you know, it could take months and months to get through the system. By deploying AI into it, perhaps it could take just a couple of days or a couple of hours to make sure the individual is able to get the permit. But on the receiving end, we want to make sure that it's being done in a very fair and equitable process. So we need to have individuals there that are monitoring AI. So we see the benefits of AI. We're leaning into it. I know that some industries, or should I say, some governments may not be because people have this fear that AI is coming to take jobs away. In, you know, with any industrial revolution, that always happens, right? Uh when you introduce new technology, certain jobs are going to be taken taken away, but new jobs are going to be created. And that's how we see AI really in the state government. That it is going to make it more efficient for us to deliver services for Marylanders, but at the same time creating new opportunities for a workforce to go into.
SPEAKER_04I wanted to build on something the Lieutenant Governor said, if I could. Um, one thing we also have been committed to is bringing our workforce along in that discussion because they're really the experts. And, you know, in government, there's so much work to be done and never enough people to do it. So it's a real opportunity to serve Marylanders better, but also to bring workers into that conversation about technology adoption. I think that's incredibly important. Because first of all, they are the experts. They're doing the work now. There are a lot of product designs that you think afterwards, well, did anyone consult the person who was going to use that product every day? We have that opportunity now. And I think we understand because of the fears about AI, it's it's really important. You know, it's it's interesting to sit in the employer's seat uh for a second about that, to understand, okay, what is my workforce worried about? They won't be successful in adopting that new technology if they're afraid, right? So we have to engage with people and it has to be a dialogue about record.
SPEAKER_02No, I am I'm glad you state it that way because I think oftentimes, especially as technologists, we get into this mindset of identifying things that we think are going to improve job performance or help the organization in some way, and then we push it into the organization without taking into account the actual user, which is really where the journey should start, identifying the requirements, identifying what actually is gonna help make this person or those persons better at doing the jobs that they're assigned to do and working the problem from that angle. I want to shift gears though to a topic that always comes up when you are talking about artificial intelligence, and that's the topic of security. Secretary Coker, how are you seeing these conversations about security happen in today's environment? There's obviously a lean into artificial intelligence from a technology standpoint, but if you're anything like me, security comes up in part two of every conversation about AI. How are you seeing that unfold?
SPEAKER_03A couple of things on that, and it ties back to your other question about the state's actions. We're addressing that that very valid security concern uh through the stand-up of our AI subcabinet. The state government stood up, led again by uh Secretary Savage. Uh that's one of the areas that we're taking a look at, taking a very serious look at it. Another one is AI interns uh that have been brought into the departments and agencies to help us better understand that. And keys with the AI intern, from my perspective, is they're certainly more current than most of us on artificial intelligence, but they also bring a dripping perspective to the processes that we have currently ongoing in the government. Folks that have been around a long time think we got it right all the time. Well, it's always good to have a fresh set of eyes come in and take a look at that. Specificity on the security front. It's it's just not gonna change. It's gonna be persistent attacks every day. And and we have to recognize that. And again, part of that is building security into the systems, not not adding security onto the systems. Uh, the more interfaces we have, the more vulnerabilities there are when we look at the attacks purpose. So we have to work through that. But artificial intelligence, like most technologies, has pros and cons. Uh, and we cannot run away from artificial intelligence because of the what we conceive to be the negative sides of it. Number one, because artificial intelligence is not going away. We need to leverage the goodness of it and address the challenges of it. Some of the challenges are the speed with which it can detect vulnerabilities in our systems. One of the good things are the speed at which it can detect the vulnerabilities of our systems. So we have to leverage it for defense and have. A hand of the offense, and we could never be complacent and think we had it solved. Adversaries, nation state actors, nation state actors, continue uh to probe and they're not gonna stop, nor should they. Uh so this is a situation where complacency increases vulnerabilities. So never think we're done because we're not.
SPEAKER_02So one of the criticisms that um that I had as a lifelong government employee was the slowness of which we adopted technology. I can recount times during my service in the FBI when we were using what I thought to be outdated operating systems. And they were acknowledged to be outdated for lots of different reasons, mostly because of the security parameters associated with bringing on board new operating systems and being able to identify vulnerabilities. Lieutenant Governor, how are you all thinking about leaning into both the AI adoption, but at the same time, you know, beating back the criticism I think that government often has around not moving fast enough on technology adoption, but you want to move at a pace and a rate that makes sense for the state, but at the same time, you want to make sure that you're riding this wave and not catching the back end of it. How are you thinking about making sure you guys are staying on pace?
SPEAKER_05Yeah, that's a really good question. I can tell you right now, one of the things that we believe would really benefit our universities, our research professors, all of them, is to be able to have a high performance compute facility in our university systems. So we've been exploring, we have uh four R1 universities in the state of Maryland: Johns Hopkins, UMBC, Morgan State, as well as College Park.
SPEAKER_02So we'll probably have to put something down on the Chiron about research level one facilities, but go ahead.
SPEAKER_05That's right. So to be able to have like a high-performance compute facility would really be a game changer, right? What may have traditionally taken months and months to do research and do computations. If you have this HBC, you can come out with those computations in a matter of hours. Right. That alone will create new startups, right? Because of the innovation. Much of innovation is not going to come from the large companies, but it's going to be from the smaller companies that could really benefit from having, you know, an HPC available. So we're exploring that. And one thing that I do want to point out, as we talk about AI, the fact of the matter is what Secretary Coker said, it's here, it's not going away, and we need to lean into it. And of course, it goes into the school system as well. You have a lot of students using it. And how do we teach students not to use it at the level that they're doing, but still know that it's here and see what's the advantages that you can bring to uh, you know, to the students. So I think we need to bring it into the school system, teach them how to use AI in the appropriate way, not to be able to write your essays, you know, come up with all the things that you're looking for. It should be done by hand and you should be able to have that thought process logically on how to come up with solutions and use it as a complement to your work, not let it be your whole work. So I know as students are looking into this, we really need to focus on where we direct them when it comes to AI, that they can't be so dependent on it, that it's only meant to be a tool to enhance what they know and how they grow.
SPEAKER_02So let me challenge that just a little bit. Sure. Only because I think that uh if if you all recall, when this first hit the scene, let's just put a two-year time mark on this. When this all hit the scene two years ago, there was a lot of resistance from the educational space about what they were seeing happen because students were essentially using AI to write papers and that that they thought that was going to be the end state, so you're not quite sure whose work you're looking at. But at the same time, uh, I think it evokes questions around whether or not we're actually teaching and using our tools in a proper way to prepare these folks for the future that they are going to inherit. Um, how are you thinking about messaging that with the colleges and universities? I'm sure they're all already kind of leaning into this. There are several colleges and universities that have these uh fantastic reputations in the state of Maryland for being forward-leaning in the cybersecurity space. How are we thinking about making sure that our K through 12 folks are prepared and coming along with this revolution that we're all experiencing? How are you guys looking at that in the state?
SPEAKER_05Well, uh again, I think it is something that we really need to be intentional about when you go into the school system because it's there. Okay, there's nothing we can do to make that go away. It's there. And so it's about training our students, teaching them how to use it in an effective manner, not to go into it entirely leaning into it. So how do we do that? Well, one of the ways you could do that is possibly if you give an assignment, an essay assignment in the classroom, make them do it by hand right there in front of you, that they're not using their uh the AI in order to come up with it. In fact, there's already, I believe, a bill going through that may be banning uh using uh cells uh or cell phones inside the school system. So if the school system itself has access to the technology that students can have, it could limit how that's make sure you cover glasses and that uh and that prohibition as well, because that's coming down the pipe. But but we have to understand that it's here. So how do we train them and teach them in the best way? And that's something I think we need to explore a little bit more about making sure students are ready as they go into college and into the workforce to again use it as a complement to what they're doing, not just do everything with it.
SPEAKER_04If I could add to that, um, we have in Maryland what's called the Cyber Maryland program, which is focused on cyber and AI workforce issues. And one of our key areas of effort is K 12. Um, one thing we've been thinking about, and there are already partnerships in the state, tech companies working with teachers, for example, to get them trained up because we know that AI can be a really valuable tool for teachers. They have such a heavy workload, helping them manage it. Um, there's some very valuable tools there. So that's very exciting. But also if they understand it better, they can understand how to use it exactly, how to use it in the classroom or how to guard against inappropriate uses with students. But we definitely think, you know, we're thinking about maybe a train the trainer model is like helping more teachers become expert in understanding it. I think you're seeing this organically, you know, in workplaces now on the private sector side. You have your consumers, you have your sort of like super users, your prosumers, who are really the ones who are driving AI adoption in their organizations. We have to do the same for our public sector workhorse and for our teachers, right? They're so busy. We need to support their learning so they can understand it, understand how to use it in schools, and also how to safely use AI in schools.
SPEAKER_02One of the um concerns on the landscape revolves around the topic of equity in the technology space. I I have a long history and involvement with uh with nonprofit organizations that have tried to address this issue over time. It it continues to be, I think, a challenge. Any worries from your vantage point around sort of leaving folks behind in what we're seeing? I mean, this thing, this AI is moving so fast. Just the advancements, the new companies that are coming on the scene almost every month, the new ways of problem solving with business operations and the business environments changing so rapidly. And we all know that oftentimes, you know, uh young children, especially those that are are black and brown, get kind of left behind in the educational system. Is there anything afoot to help address that potential gap?
SPEAKER_04Absolutely. I mean, I think we we all sort of learned a lot from what happened with the internet revolution, right? And the broadband issues, you know, there was connectivity, but there's also just the lack of basic digital skills in some communities. We saw a huge disparity there. We have an opportunity to do better this time around, but that will require some very intentional interventions, making sure that everyone, and this is this is the tension, right? We're not sure how best to deploy AI in schools, but that is the place that every student is. And so we need to use that opportunity to help every young person get that strong, not only technical, but AI skills foundation. Um, and then we have to work through our workforce, right? We know that different jobs will be impacted differently. Right. It's probably more of an industry sector or a role type of impact. But we really need to think about okay, for those individuals who are impacted in those sectors, how can we make sure that there is training to help those individuals upskill either in their industry so they can use AI tools or if they need to shift in some other way to really support those shifts? Because you're right, the the impacts will be felt differently too across industry. Right.
SPEAKER_05Yeah. And I'd like to also add uh to your point, MK, there's a lot of bias in AI right now, right? It's only as good as the data that's vetted. So therefore, we need to lean into having more women and black and brown community members be a part of this to make it equitable, to make it so that it's not so biased. Um, I'll give you an example. I asked AI to create a graphic for me for an event that I was having. And what do you suppose the graphic came up with? All Caucasian people as the image. So I type into my chat GPT and say, make it more diverse, please. And then it created a more diverse image. And not by default. Yes, right. Not by default. So therefore, we need to have women and people of color really be a part of the AI uh revolution. They have to be there.
SPEAKER_02I have a question I'll I'll pose to each of you uh as we round this corner. I told you I was bullish on AI. Uh I'm excited about what's coming. Robotics, all of the advancements that we've seen. Secretary Coker, I'll start with you first. What are you excited about?
SPEAKER_03With regards to AI, I am very excited about the lighthouse sectors that was mentioned. And the the second one is computational health. That's from our life sciences industry. But computational health is using our artificial intelligence and advanced mathematical modeling in a cross-disciplinary manner, going after these uh larger and more useful data sets, with the objective, and this is why I'm excited, of uh better drug discoveries, which means they're more effective and developed faster, better personalized medicine, and that's why artificial intelligence can be used to enhance our quality of life, not just in Maryland, but around the world. But Maryland is taking the lead with our computational health lighthouse sector. And artificial intelligence is a key pillar of that, and that's what excites me, the impact uh to human life.
SPEAKER_02Okay. Secretary Wu?
SPEAKER_03I'm gonna cheat and squeeze two things in.
SPEAKER_04Uh one, um, serving Marylanders better, right? Like I said, my department has unemployment insurance, we're gonna have paid family leave, this kind of process and um serving the public functions. We just don't have enough people to deal with all of it. And having AI to help accelerate and support the work of our skilled state workforce, like that's wonderful. I also say, I think that AI lowering the barrier for entrepreneurship because you can suddenly have AI perform a lot of those functions. If you've had that idea and you want to start a business, but you can't sort of marshal all the resources, there's so much potential there. That's super exciting.
SPEAKER_02How closer were you thinking to the uh to the $1 billion one-person company? I I don't know. It might happen. You telling me it might happen in the state of Maryland. It could absolutely can happen with us. Yeah, outstanding. Lieutenant Governor Miller, I'll I'll leave you the last word. What are you excited about?
SPEAKER_05I'm excited about the opportunities that technology really brings forward. Uh, as Secretary Coker said, not only in the quality of life that it can uh change for all of us, but to Secretary Wu's point, so many jobs are in this field. And you don't necessarily have to have a four-year degree in order to be an entrepreneur and really have a startup and do something really creative and innovative. You can do that with a high school degree, an apprenticeship. You can do that with a two-year community college degree. And I think this is so important, again, for women and people of color to be able to get their foot in the door because you're talking about high-paying jobs, right? And that just what it feeds back into the economy and their purpose and where they can launch their careers. I think uh technology is a great area to do it in.
SPEAKER_02Outstanding. Secretary Wu, Secretary Cooker, and Lieutenant Governor Miller, thanks for being on The Risk Apogee. I really appreciate it. Thank you for having us. Thank you.
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