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Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin is embarking on a landmark project to use “agentic” artificial intelligence to hasten his 2022 pledge to cut one-quarter of Virginia’s red-tape regulatory structure during his tenure.
The term-limited Republican signed an executive order that introduced a pilot program using AI to scan the entirety of Richmond’s regulations and official guidance.
“We ask each agency to calculate the savings to them associated with any action that is taken. For more information about our methodology, I would point you to the Regulatory Economic Analysis Manual, which can be found online,” Youngkin spokesperson Peter Finocchio told Fox News Digital.
“AI is utilized in two key ways in this process: comparing existing regulations with what is actually required by statute, to identify any redundancies, and comparing Virginia’s regulations to those in other states, to see if other states are accomplishing similar goals more efficiently and with less red tape.”
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“AI is utilized in this way to make recommendations, but there is always a human in the loop making the final decisions, which is required by Executive Order 30,” Finocchio added.
Agentic AI refers to artificial intelligence that differs from typical reactive bots like ChatGPT or Grok that provide information based on prompts, and instead can be programmed to pursue a goal, make autonomous decisions and take actions.
Driverless cars like Waymo taxis are another real-world example of such technology.
AI will “supercharge” the Youngkin administration’s efforts, his office said in a statement, and help ensure that government is streamlined and modernized to better serve the people of the Old Dominion.
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“We have made tremendous strides towards streamlining regulations and the regulatory process in the Commonwealth. Using emergent artificial intelligence tools, we will push this effort further in order to continue our mission of unleashing Virginia’s economy in a way that benefits all of its citizens,” said Youngkin, who was a successful executive in the private sector before entering government.
The AI tool will alert the state to any areas in which regulations are redundant, contradictory or overbroad.
State agencies will then be able to use the AI platform in the future as well to continue breaking down the barriers to effective governance.
“The ‘Virginia model’ for regulatory modernization has become the gold standard across the U.S., with other states and federal agencies looking to replicate our reforms,” Virginia Regulatory Management Director Reeve Bull said.
“With this newest initiative, Virginia will continue to lead the nation, becoming the first state to launch an agentic AI tool to power the regulatory reduction process,” Bull added.
Thus far, state government guidance documentation has been culled by nearly half, as roughly 48% of the total word counts have been deleted.
That figure adds to the 26% of regulatory requirements statewide that have been either streamlined or eliminated, resulting in an estimated $1.2 billion annual taxpayer savings. The state indicated that there are still some agencies in Richmond that have not met Youngkin’s 25% goal laid out in his original order.
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