Gov. Youngkin wants Virginia to be a leader when it comes to artificial intelligence guidelines in the classroom.

On Thursday, Youngkin signed an executive order that implements AI Education Guidelines for the classroom and AI Policy and Information Technology Standards that safeguard the state’s databases while simultaneously protecting the individual data of all Virginians.

“These standards and guidelines will help provide the necessary guardrails to ensure that AI technology will be safely implemented across all state agencies and departments,” Youngkin said in the statement.

With the largest population of cybersecurity companies and personnel on the East Coast, several colleges and universities with technology research and critical national security and military intelligence institutions, Virginia has a huge interest in the impacts of AI.

The education guidelines establish guiding principles for the use of AI at all education levels. The hope is to ensure students will be prepared for the jobs of tomorrow without sacrificing any current learning opportunities.

“At the same time, we must utilize these innovative technologies to deliver state services more efficiently and effectively. Therefore, my administration will utilize the $600,000 in proposed funds outlined in my Unleashing Opportunity budget to launch pilots that evaluate the effectiveness of these new standards,” Youngkin said.