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AI is rapidly evolving, and many local governments are still struggling to catch up and figure out how, or if they should be using it.

In Snohomish County, local leaders decided to try an experiment.

They decided to convene what's known as a civic assembly of 29 randomly selected county residents to deliberate on AI and come up with policy recommendations.

Cascade PBS and KNKX reporter Nate Sanford went inside the entire process.

-The idea for a citizens' assembly on AI was prompted in part by a series of articles I wrote last summer, using thousands of pages of chat logs obtained through public records requests.

I reported on how city officials in Everett had experimented with AI tools like ChatGPT for a variety of tasks.

That reporting raised questions about transparency.

It also caught the eye of local leaders in Snohomish County.

-So, that reporting actually was the thing that kicked off the civic assembly on this particular issue.

-Civic Genius is a national nonprofit that's worked on civic assemblies before in other areas, but this is the first one that Youngblood is aware of that's about AI.

The Snohomish County Council says they'll take the recommendations produced by the group seriously, and try to adopt them into law.

Over three weekends in May and June, the group of 29 citizens heard from experts, did research, and debated the thorny ethical issues at the heart of AI.

-Humanity needs to be put before technology, and that's just not happening.

To be part of this civic process that is so new to Snohomish County and be able to be part of something kind of historic.

-Nate Sanford, Cascade PBS.

-All this week, we'll hear more from those participants and others about the process and tell you about the AI questions it surfaced.

I'm Paris Jackson, thanks for watching The Newsfeed.