AI is already coursing through state government. Can workers be protected?

In talking about AI and Massachusetts state government’s contract for its use, a top official in Gov. Maura Healey’s administration wanted to be clear: The state is not replacing workers.

Thomas Myers, the general counsel and chief privacy officer in the Executive Office of Technology Services and Security, said the aim is “better outcomes” and “better service delivery.” The AI assistant for state workers is a voluntary one, he added while on a State House News Service/MASSterList panel on AI yesterday.

On the other end of the panel was Sen. Barry Finegold. In the decades after the computer became broadly available, he said, 400,000 bookkeepers lost their jobs. (It did lead to a boom in accountants and financial analysts, he added.)

The challenge of AI is training the modern-day versions of bookkeepers to become accountants and financial analysts,  which requires time and resources, he said. An additional challenge is how quickly AI is evolving, he noted. Even so, Finegold said he’s bullish on the AI future.

The discussion underscored the public trepidation over the disruption, and the enthusiasm in some corners for opportunities that AI is expected to bring about.

When Healey announced in February an OpenAI contract that called for a ChatGPT-powered AI assistant to be rolled across the executive branch and its 40,000 employees, some officials noted the delicate nature of the endeavor behind the scenes.

One official, in an email obtained through a public records request, said as an outreach plan came together for the announcement that Healey’s labor adviser, Roger Brunelle, should be kept in the loop since the unions would likely need “that extra touch.” (The National Association of Government Employees (NAGE), which represents 15,000 state workers, was not mollified, saying the administration was “rushing” into AI.)

On the panel, Myers pointed to one use already underway: MassDOT engineers who have had to deal with volumes of codes and regulations now can easily pull the information after it was placed in a large language model (LLM), saving them time.

In the economic development office, AI is a “favorite” topic for Eric Paley, a venture capitalist who calls himself an “AI optimist.” He treats it like a “pretty good intern.”

At a separate event earlier this year, Paley related a story about MBTA chief Phil Eng figuring out he could use AI in dealing with vehicle maintenance. The T has had to stockpile the expensive parts, and Eng undertook a data analysis via AI about which parts they use and which ones they don't, and weeded out the ones they don't use. "He has saved tens of millions of dollars for the MBTA" by using AI, Paley said.

At an event last year, Healey told the crowd she used an AI chatbot to write a speech, and called the tech “amazing” and “transformational.” But she struck a slightly different tone in front of the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce in March, saying she was concerned about worker displacement. “It's also the case that AI needs guardrails. It's scary. You know, people are freaked out about AI, right? I get it. You see the deep fakes, you hear the specter of machines starting wars, right? There’s real concern.”

Massachusetts state government’s fuller immersion into AI remains an open question. As Pioneer Institute researcher Gary Blank pointed out in a recent report and at yesterday’s AI event, Massachusetts has developed 20 AI use cases, and only three for external users. Virginia, in contrast, has reported about 120 applications. There is more efficiency to be gained, and more friction with the state workforce seems inevitable.

More coverage of the AI panel from my colleagues is available here (gift link). I used AI last year to come up with my proposal for a new state seal: a blue whale with cranberries coming out of its spout. Suffice to say it took a few tries for the “intern” to get one without a horrifying result. What have you used AI for? Drop me a line: [email protected].

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8:00 | The National Federation of Independent Business along with Retailers Association of Massachusetts and the Massachusetts Restaurant Association host the second event of its Main Street Matters Tour. The event is meant to bring Cape Cod small businesses to gather, network, discuss issues they’re facing and learn what lawmakers are working on. | Upper Cape Cod Regional Technical School at 220 Sandwich Road, Bourne

9:30 | Responsible Business Initiative for Justice holds a remote webinar focused on employers titled “Unlocking Massachusetts’ Untapped Talent: The Business Case for Clean Slate.” Local and national executives are set to make the case for a policy change that automates the sealing of eligible criminal records for those who maintain clean records over time. Speakers include Jay Ash, Massachusetts Competitive Partnership CEO, and Nan Gibson, executive director for JPMorgan Chase Policy Center. | Zoom access

10:30 | Gov. Maura Healey holds a press conference to call on the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold access to the abortion medication mifepristone. | Room 157, State House, Boston

11:00 | Groundbreaking ceremony is held for the Framingham Regional Justice Center, which will house the District, Juvenile, Probate & Family and Housing courts and the Middlesex County District Attorney's offices. Speakers include Trial Court Chief Justice Heidi Brieger, Trial Court Administrator Thomas Ambrosino, and Senate President Karen Spilka. | 123 Union Ave., Framingham

11:00 | Attorney General Andrea Campbell meets with students and participates in a tour of Ipswich High School, which her office says "has been a leader in implementing a bell-to-bell no cell phone policy.” Following the tour, Campbell will make an announcement related to supporting phone-free schools. | 134 High St, Ipswich

12:00 | U.S. Sen. Ed Markey holds a press conference with U.S. Rep. Katherine Clark and Malden Mayor Gary Christenson to celebrate $3.8 million in federal funding for the expansion of Malden's Department of Public Works yard into a climate resilient park along the Malden River. | 356 Commercial St., Malden

3:00 | The ALX100 Celebration honors Latino American leaders in Massachusetts. U.S. Sen. Ed Markey, Gov. Maura Healey and Boston Mayor Michelle Wu are slated to speak around 3:30 p.m. | JFK Presidential Library, Columbia Point, Dorchester

Gov. Maura Healey appointed retired justice Merita Hopkins as the new chair of the state’s Ethics Commission. She succeeds Margot Botsford, a former Supreme Judicial Court justice, who served as chair since 2023. Hopkins joined the Superior Court in 2006 and retired in 2021. Hopkins, a former prosecutor in the Middlesex DA’s office and a FBI agent, also worked for Boston Mayor Thomas Menino, serving as his corporation counsel and chief of staff before Gov. Mitt Romney nominated her to the Superior Court.

Westfield’s Sen. John Velis is back home after a six-month deployment with the Mass. National Guard. He was placed on active-duty deployment on the U.S. southwest border. “I’m eager to get back to work ahead of the Senate’s budget debates later this month to secure vital funding for our district and to fight for the issues at the top of mind of so many residents,” Velis said in a statement released by his office, which remained in operation for constituents during his activation.

AUDIT DECISION DEADLINE: The Supreme Judicial Court ordered Attorney General Andrea Campbell to file a “status report” in 30 days on whether she plans to represent Auditor Diana DiZoglio in the long-running battle over a legislative audit. – Boston Globe

DATA CENTER REGS: Final regulations covering a sales tax exemption for data centers in Massachusetts were released Thursday. That means they don’t have to pay the 6.25% sales tax for 20 years on equipment, electricity use, computer software and construction costs The regs came as Lowell residents filed a lawsuit against a local data center and environmental regulators, saying the center wrongly received approvals. – CommonWealth Beacon and Boston Globe

IMMIGRANT PROTECTION LEGISLATION: Senators voted 37-3 to pass an immigrant protection bill that carries key differences from the House version. House and Senate negotiators will have to consider where warrant requirements for civil arrests apply, since the House limited it to courthouses. – State House News Service

PUBLIC DEFENDERS SAGA: A group representing public defenders has filed an anti-trust suit with the Supreme Judicial Court, saying the state Legislature enacted an unconstitutional provision targeting their work stoppages. – Eagle-Tribune

CITY HALL TEXTS: The Wu administration denied a Globe reporter’s request for Mayor Michelle Wu’s text messages that followed her offer of a peek during a meeting of the newspaper’s editorial board. – Boston Globe

AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL: A Plymouth Superior Court judge said the town’s manager was being “cute” by ordering town employees to stop doing any work for the municipal airport and told him to knock it off. The town manager, Derek Brindisi, is in a dispute with the Plymouth Municipal Airport Commission. – Plymouth Independent

MBTA PAYROLL: A review of the MBTA’s payroll showed 19 employees made more than $300,000 in 2025. Payroll overall grew 8.6% that year as the agency brought on new hires. – MassLive

FIDELITY CUTS: Financial services giant Fidelity plans to cut 800 jobs, a 1% reduction, though it also plans to hire up as part of a reorganization of its global workforce. – Boston Business Journal

CRRC FURLOUGHS: CRRC, which assembles new MBTA train cars in a Springfield factory, has extended worker furloughs into July as unfinished car shells arrive from China, having been held up by U.S. customs officials. – MassLive

CLIMATE GRANT: The D.C. Court of Appeals held a hearing on a climate grant stripped from the city of Springfield amid the Trump administration’s cuts. – Western Mass. Politics & Insight

Free Worcester bus service to continue for another year

TD Bank doubles its Boston footprint 

New data on antisemitism in New England shows fewer campus protests

KELLER AT LARGE: 8:30 a.m., WBZ-TV. Political analyst Jon Keller's guest is Amy Carnevale, chair of the MassGOP. They discuss the races for governor and U.S. Senate, and the state of the party locally and nationally.

@ ISSUE SIT DOWN: 9:30 a.m., NBC 10. Reporter Matt Prichard interviews Barney Frank, the former Mass. congressman now in hospice care in Maine.

ON THE RECORD: 11 a.m., WCVB. The guest is Brian Shortsleeve, one of the two GOP candidates for governor.

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Campaign Coordinator, Committee to Protect Cannabis Regulation

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