Former Vice Mayor Bill Cleveland is not the most tech-savvy person, but he says he’s eager to bring his perspective in law enforcement and city legislating to the new AI Task Force.
Cleveland, who emphasized that he is “still learning about AI”, is one of ten members of a new task force assembled by Gov. Glenn Youngkin to tackle policy questions about artificial intelligence.
Cleveland is a Vietnam veteran and worked in the Capitol Police. Perhaps most relevant for the appointment, though, is that Cleveland served on the Alexandria City Council for 15 years as a Republican, becoming vice mayor in the 1991 and 2000 elections before losing a mayoral race to Bill Euille in 2003, then losing subsequent sheriff and city council elections in 2005 and 2007. In 2016 he was inducted as a Living Legend of Alexandria.
Cleveland has maintained close ties to Republican leadership, from meetings with Donald Trump to prior appointments from Youngkin to boards like the Virginia African American Advisory Board.
“I’ve been on quite a few task forces for the Governor,” Cleveland said. “This was an appointment the Governor thought I might be able to lend a perspective on; being a police officer for 30 years and on the City Council for 15.”
Cleveland is the sole former elected official on a Task Force, which includes members from the right-wing think tank Foundation for American Innovation and professors from George Mason University and Virginia Tech.
The AI Task Force announcement said the group, which will meet twice a year, will advise on the following topics:
- Implementation of the Policy Standards, IT Standards, and Education Guidelines
- AI uses in state government and whether they comply with guardrails established under EO 30
- Legislation that may be offered to address AI policy
- Any pilot programs that consider whether to expand innovative uses of AI across state government
- Ongoing developments in the AI space, including AI policy adopted by national, state, or local governments
While Cleveland has experience in elected office and law enforcement, he’s the first to admit his knowledge of AI is still a work in progress.
“I’m still learning about AI myself,” Cleveland said. “As a matter of fact, I want to learn a lot more about AI. It can really be good if we have a guide for leaders to do it because everyone is diving into it, so the best thing to do is learn about it first.”
Cleveland said he wants to “use it for good for law enforcement” and establish guidelines for civic leadership in how to implement AI.
“Being on this task force and knowing law enforcement and being on Council, being a legislator, I want to make sure that this Task Force has guidelines for leaders,” Cleveland said. “I learned about texts, I’m going to learn about AI because I want to use it for good and I want law enforcement to use it in the best way possible.”
