In the Tri-Cities and the rest of Washington, artificial intelligence is being pursued and adopted in a variety of ways – in research, policy and daily business life alike.
Although AI has been around for years, it particularly caught public attention after the launch of ChatGPT in late 2022.
The text-generating chatbot, developed by the company OpenAI, is just one of many artificial intelligence models currently circulating.
It’s clear that AI is here to stay.
This summer, Washington convened a task force to provide AI statewide policy recommendations.
About 20% of the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory’s workforce is involved in AI research.
And the owner of the Tri-Cities biggest hospital is planning to roll out AI-powered health technology.
Policy
Since the beginning of this year, 11 new states have established laws pertaining to AI, bringing the total number of states with AI legislation to 28, according to the Washington State Standard.
“States have been legislating about AI since at least 2019, but bills relating to AI have increased significantly in the last two years,” the Standard reported.
Washington, too, sees a need for AI-related policy. In June, a state Artificial Intelligence Task Force was created, administered by the Attorney General’s Office.
The task force consists of 19 members, including state Sen. Matt Boehnke, R-Kennewick.
“By bringing together a diverse group of experts and stakeholders, we have a unique opportunity to craft policies that balance innovation with public safety and ethical considerations,” Boehnke said in a statement.
The task force has until July 1, 2026, to provide a final report with policy recommendations. The group plans to meet at least once a month during that two-year period, according to a newsletter from Boehnke.
It met for the first time on July 26 to review the bylaws, create subcommittees and assign committee chairs.
The task force’s subcommittees include education and workforce development; public safety and ethics; health care and accessibility; labor; government and public sector efficiency; state security and cybersecurity; consumer protection and privacy; and industry and innovation.
Boehnke added in his newsletter that he “would like to set up local meetings in the Tri-Cities area for residents and stakeholders to share their concerns at the local level. Even though this work is being led at the state level, we need local voices from our communities,” he said.
Business use
The Tri-Cities business community has already begun taking a look at artificial intelligence.
In January, the Tri-City Regional Chamber of Commerce addressed the topic at its Ask the Experts in a session titled, “AI Unleashed.”
Chris Collier
| Courtesy Chris CollierOne of the panelists, Chris Collier, considers himself an early adopter of ChatGPT. Collier is the vice president of marketing at Houston, Texas-based EHS Insight, but he works from his home base of Pasco.
EHS Insight develops “an environmental health and safety platform that helps safety professionals stay organized and help their company become more safe,” Collier said.
Collier has firsthand experiences with the capabilities of ChatGPT. He uses the chatbot in his daily operations and encourages his team to use it, too.
“It’s increased productivity,” Collier said. “… We just get way more work done. I think the quality of work is as good as everything we’ve done, if not better, with utilizing AI.”
ChatGPT is free to use, but Collier uses the paid version for its faster generation speeds.
He uses ChatGPT to generate outlines and ideas, giving him a blueprint to work from so that he doesn’t have to begin with a blank page. But that doesn’t mean that he, and others using chatbots, isn’t ultimately responsible for the content.
“You should do your due diligence,” Collier said, “especially if you’re reporting statistics or you’re writing on something that’s a little technical, you should get a subject matter expert or something to vet the content.”
And it’s still important to be a strong writer and editor, he said, because the content AI generates tends to sound “regurgitated.”
Artificial intelligence is “becoming more and more prevalent for all business professionals,” Collier said.
His advice to other businesses is to just start experimenting with the technology. “You see the starting point,” he said. “You have to start. It’s not going to start without you. You just have to do it.”
Research
AI plays an ongoing role in research as well. In December, the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory launched its Center for AI @PNNL, with Court Corley as the director.
Court Corley leads the Center for AI @PNNL.
| Courtesy Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, photo by Andrea StarrAbout 20% of PNNL’s 6,000-person workforce is involved in AI, Corley said, and the Center for AI unites researchers across PNNL.
PNNL has a long history of researching AI, but Corley said that previously, only one or two places in PNNL had AI capabilities. “But now, everybody’s using it,” Corley said, and the center is needed to focus priorities and increase communication between groups working on or with AI.
The center is working toward four main priorities: advancing AI and applying it to the U.S. Department of Energy’s missions, attracting and retaining a world-class AI workforce, providing access to resources, and coordinating partnerships.
Corley said the center is investing in a “two-year effort to be able to explore the use of generative AI towards Department of Energy missions.” Chat tools have been rolled out to the staff, including OpenAI models such as ChatGPT 4.
PNNL also has used AI models to develop the Enterprise chat tool as a resource allowing staff to explore data. Since it is an internal tool, researchers can put sensitive documents into the system safely instead of relying on public chat tools.
In terms of applications for these tools, Corley said “we’re really exploring all of the areas of focus for PNNL, from material science and chemistry … all the way through to things like improving productivity and things like that.”
In one instance, AI helped accelerate scientific discovery for new materials, condensing a months-long process into hours.
“We used generative AI to generate over 30 million potential candidate materials for a battery,” Corley said, “and they were able to narrow that down to 18 within 80 hours, and then synthesize that material in the laboratory.”
PNNL doesn’t only harness AI for research; it also conducts research on AI. Some of the focuses of that research are on developing more energy-efficient AI, ensuring that AI is trustworthy, augmenting existing models and operationalizing AI.
“One of our efforts is a pilot project with the Department of Energy to accelerate the permitting and siting of transmission lines,” Corley said, a process required by the National Environmental Policy Act.
“It’s an exciting time in AI,” Corley said.
“We have a world class AI center right in our local community that’s really advancing the state of the art in this area, and working, not in isolation but in partnership with other important entities that are also working in this area,” said Karyn Hede, a news and media advisor at PNNL.
Health care
Other industries are employing AI as well. Providence, which operates Kadlec Regional Medical Center in Richland, recently announced that it will be expanding its partnership with AI-driven health technology company Xsolis.
During an eight-month initial deployment in eight Oregon hospitals, the technology streamlined Providence’s review processes and helped to ensure more timely patient discharge.
Now, Xsolis’ platform will be integrated in 28 Providence hospitals across Washington, Oregon, Alaska, Montana, New Mexico and Texas.
Xsolis’ Care Level Score technology uses predictive AI capabilities to analyze medical necessity, saving time and removing unnecessary administrative work.
Providence intends to extend access to Xsolis’ platform, updates and predictive analytics to networked health plans to enable better collaboration.