Florida State University’s College of Law, in partnership with the Stoops Center for Law and Business and the Institute of Law, Technology, and Innovation, held its first AI Day in the Capital last week. The event brought together professionals from government, law, technology, and academia to discuss developments in artificial intelligence and its impact on public institutions.
College of Law Dean Erin O’Hara O’Connor opened the event. Discussions focused on how AI is influencing public services, education, justice systems, and ethical governance. Joshua Coco, Executive Director of the Stoops Center for Law and Business who helped organize the event, stated: “AI Day in the Capital helped demystify artificial intelligence by moving the conversation beyond theory and into real-world applications. Our goal was to give policymakers, practitioners and the public a clearer understanding of how AI is already being used across sectors and where thoughtful governance and collaboration are most needed.”
A symposium titled “AI and the Public Good” included panelists such as FSU Associate Vice President and Chief Information Officer Jonathan Fozard; Ruben Harris, CEO of Outrival AI; Emily Cabrera from IRG Ventures; with Saif Ishoof from Lab22c moderating. Fozard emphasized that data security is a priority at Florida State University: “When we think about AI, we don’t think about what’s the flashy and cool thing,” he said. “It’s how can we make sure that it’s secure in what we’re solving? One of the things you must think about at Florida State is it’s not just college classes. We also have K-12 schools that are part of the FSU system. We have a wide variety of protection that we must do from minors to college students to adults.”
Fozard also explained FSU’s approach to data management for AI initiatives: “What is AI without data? It’s software,” he said. “The data is what makes that connection. It starts with a data strategy that we have. With the State of Florida, we’re doing some research that was just announced in the last year with mental health data. It starts with that data platform first, and then how we leverage AI on top of it to help with some of the analysis.”
Sergio Ortega from Amazon Web Services led a keynote session discussing generative AI technologies—addressing both their potential benefits for efficiency and equity as well as concerns around bias and oversight.
Breakout sessions allowed participants hands-on experiences exploring coding or using AI tools for research development or grant writing. These were led by faculty including Yaacov Petscher (College of Social Work/Florida Center for Reading Research) and Wajeeha Hazoor Bajwa (Anne Spencer Daves College of Education).
The day concluded with an afternoon keynote by Maria Gervais from SynthBee followed by a panel discussion on policy implications involving Lauren Scholz (McConnaughhay & Rissman Professor) among others.
Reflecting on outcomes from this inaugural gathering Coco noted: “From the diversity of perspectives on the panels to the hands-on demonstrations, the event reflected exactly what we hoped to create: a practical, interdisciplinary conversation about AI that connects innovation, policy, and public impact.”
For more details about FSU Law programs visit law.fsu.edu.
