Master of Social Work student Jacqueline Houston competed at the 2024 Future of Florida Summit, hosted and organized by the Bob Graham Center for Public Service. The goal of the summit was to give students experience in learning how to craft public policy proposals that address critical issues facing their generation.
The Future of Florida Summit is modeled after Harvard’s Institute of Politics National Campaign Conference and features a weekend of meaningful discussion and collaboration among students from Florida institutions.
The summit focused on artificial intelligence (AI) policy. It aimed to introduce students to AI concerning policy and its facets, and encouraged them to create public policy proposals. Students questioned leading experts from around the state in cross-cutting fields of education, law, policy, and agriculture to learn more about the issues facing various stakeholders regarding the lack of AI policy.
“I was drawn to this event as more and more child welfare agencies throughout the country are implementing artificial intelligence for risk assessment in child protection investigations," Houston said. "As an emerging issue across all fields, child welfare is under pressure to improve historical practices as early implementation efforts such as those seen with the Allegheny Family Screening Tool in Pittsburg, PA are only compounding the existing disparities within child welfare such as disproportionate removals of children from families who are Black, poor, and living with a disability.”