Washington state Gov. Bob Ferguson is threading the needle when it comes to artificial intelligence.

Ferguson made a brief appearance at the opening reception for Seattle AI Week on Monday evening, speaking at AI House on Pier 70 about his approach to governing the consequential technology.

“I view my job as maximizing the benefits and minimizing harms,” said Ferguson, who took office earlier this year.

Ferguson called AI one of the “top five biggest challenges” he thinks about daily, both professionally and personally.

In a follow-up interview with GeekWire, the governor said AI “could totally transform our government, as well as the private sector, in many ways.”

His comments came just as Amazon, the largest employer in Washington state, said it would eliminate about 14,000 corporate jobs, citing a need to reduce bureaucracy and become more efficient in the new era of artificial intelligence.

Ferguson told the crowd that the future of work and “loss of jobs that come with the technology” is on his mind.

The governor highlighted Washington’s AI Task Force, created during his tenure as attorney general, which is studying issues from algorithmic bias to data security. The group’s next set of recommendations arrives later this year and could shape upcoming legislation, he said.

States are moving ahead with their own AI rules in the absence of a comprehensive federal framework. Washington appears to sit in the pragmatic middle of this fast-moving regulatory landscape — using executive action and an expert task force to build guidelines, while watching experiments in states such as California and Colorado.

Seattle city leaders also getting involved. Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell last month announced a “responsible AI plan” that provides guidelines for Seattle’s use of artificial intelligence and its support of the AI tech sector as an economic driver.

Ferguson said he’s aware of how AI can “really revolutionize our economy and state in so many ways,” from healthcare to education to wildfire detection.

But he also flagged his concerns — both as a policymaker and parent. The governor, who has 17-year-old twins, said he worries about the technology’s impact on young people, referencing reports of teen suicides linked to AI chatbots.

Despite those concerns, Ferguson maintained an upbeat tone during his remarks at Seattle AI Week, citing the region’s technical talent and economic opportunity from the technology.

He noted that the state, amid a $16 billion budget shortfall this year, kept $300,000 in funding for the AI House, the new waterfront startup hub that hosted Monday’s event.

“There is no better place anywhere in the United States for this innovation than right here in the Northwest,” he said.

Related: A tale of two Seattles in the age of AI: Harsh realities and new hope for the tech community

A new report exploring the potential for the Pacific Northwest to stake its claim as the global leader in responsible AI offers a paradoxical view. The Cascadia region, which includes Seattle, Portland and Vancouver, B.C., is described as a proven, promising player in the sphere — but with significant risks that threaten its success.

“We created companies that transformed global commerce,” writes former Gov. Chris Gregoire in a forward to the document. “Now we have the chance to add another chapter — one where Cascadia becomes the world’s standard-bearer for innovation that uplifts both people and planet.”

The Cascadia Innovation Corridor, which Gregoire chairs, released the report this morning as it kicks off its two-day conference. The economic advocacy group’s eighth annual event is being held in Seattle.

The study is built on an analysis by the Boston Consulting Group that ranks Cascadia’s three metro areas against 15 comparable regions in the U.S. and Canada for their economic competitiveness, including livability, workforce, and business and innovation climate. Seattle came in fourth behind Boston, Austin and Raleigh, while Portland ranked 13th and Vancouver 14th.

Over the past decade, the region’s gross domestic product and populations have both grown significantly, and when combined, their economies approach the 18th largest in the world.

Cascadia’s strengths, the report explains, include tech engines such as cloud giants Microsoft and Amazon in Washington, silicon chip manufacturing in Oregon, and quantum innovation in Vancouver, as well as academic excellence from the University of Washington, University of British Columbia and Oregon State University.

But as time goes on and as business and civic leaders aim for the prize of AI dominance, cracks in the system are increasingly troubling.

• Business costs are rising and there are mounting regulatory concerns — but it’s a tricky picture. Seattle, for example, often turns to B&O and headcount taxes to cover costs, while the state struggles to balance budgets in the absence of an income tax.
• Housing affordability is continuing to decline for many residents in these metro areas.
• Skilled tech workers are leaving Portland, in particular, and Seattle relies heavily on foreign workers receiving H1-B visas, which are less certain under the Trump administration.
• The clean, affordable energy that was once abundant in the Pacific Northwest is decreasingly available as droughts reduce river flows that drive hydropower dams and electricity demand increases with rapid data center growth.

The report notes that multiple regions around the U.S. and Canada have created AI-focused hubs with hundreds of millions of dollars in public and private funding to bolster their hold on the sector.

New Jersey has a half-billion dollar “AI Moonshot” program including tax incentives and public-worker AI training programs; New York’s “Empire AI Consortium” has an AI computing training center at the University of Buffalo and startup supports; and California has a public-private task force to increase AI adoption within government services and connecting tech leaders with state agencies.

For its part, Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell announced a “responsible AI plan” this fall that provides guidelines for the municipality’s use of artificial intelligence and its support of the AI tech sector as an economic driver, which includes the earlier launches of the startup-focused AI House and Foundations.

But what the region really needs to succeed is a collaborative effort tapping all of the metro areas’ assets.

“For Cascadia, the lesson is clear: without a coordinated strategy that links our strengths in cloud computing, semiconductors, and research, we risk falling behind,” states the Cascadia Innovation Corridor report. “Acting together, we can position Cascadia not just to keep pace, but to lead.”

Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell has a message for his city’s tech giants: it’s time to reinvest in the community.

Harrell, speaking at an event Wednesday hosted by the Fremont Chamber of Commerce, said Seattle’s large companies have a “moral obligation to give back.”

The mayor specifically called out Microsoft and Amazon, citing their annual profits. “Microsoft … they made $88 billion last year … they have an obligation to give back to society, as does Amazon,” he said.

Harrell also described Seattle as a “city of innovation,” and one that has become a “great launching pad and fertile grounds for large companies.”

“That’s a good thing,” he said. “That’s not a bad thing.”

His comments reflect a delicate balance faced by Harrell and other city leaders — ensuring that Seattle’s global tech corporations continue to bolster the economy and tax base, while addressing the ripple effects on housing, transportation, and communities.

Harrell has delivered a similar message since taking office in 2022.

“What I’ve tried to do as mayor is to say, without ambiguity, that we value their jobs,” he said of Amazon, Seattle’s largest employer, in an interview with GeekWire earlier this year. “We also believe in a culture of accountability.”

During an appearance at the GeekWire Summit in 2022, Harrell urged the business and tech industry to get more involved in civic life to help make improvements in the city.

“There’s just plenty of opportunities for you all to engage,” he said, “and I’m just a call away to facilitate that engagement.”

Harrell, a former attorney in the telecom industry, is seeking re-election next month. He’s facing off against Katie Wilson, a progressive community organizer who won nearly 51% of the vote in the August primary.

The race is drawing national attention, in part due to the contrasting profiles and campaigns between the incumbent and challenger.

Wilson was inspired to run after Seattle voters earlier this year approved a measure creating a publicly funded social housing developer, financed by a 5% tax on salaries above $1 million paid to employees working in the city.

Harrell supported an alternative funding mechanism for social housing in Seattle. The proposed ordinance received financial support from Amazon and Microsoft.

The debate over who should pay for city services — and how much — underscores a broader tension between Seattle’s progressive tax ambitions and its reliance on the tech industry’s prosperity.

Harrell briefly spoke about taxes during Wednesday’s event, noting how the city “lost 10,000 jobs from Amazon” following years of friction over tax policy in Seattle. “That’s not a sustainable strategy, just to tax people,” he said.

However, Harrell earlier this year supported a proposal that would shield smaller companies from paying Seattle’s business & occupation tax — while increasing rates for larger companies.

Harrell was city council president in 2018 when lawmakers approved — and then repealed — a controversial per-employee “head tax” on big businesses. The council in 2020 later passed the “JumpStart” payroll tax, which Wilson helped craft.

Speaking to GeekWire last month, Wilson — whose platform is focused on raising more revenue “from the wealthiest corporations” — said she aims to have a working relationship with Amazon and other tech companies, calling them “very important players in our city and our economy.”

While tech dominates the Seattle economy, Wilson is interested in diversifying that focus. In a recent post on Reddit, she cautioned that a heavy reliance on the tech sector could pose problems for Seattle down the road.

“We’ve really been blithely riding the tech wave for the past 15 years and I don’t think we can just assume that will continue,” she wrote.

At the event Wednesday, Harrell also discussed public safety and the city’s new high-tech operations center designed to help officers fight crime in real time.

The Real Time Crime Center (RTCC) pulls live footage and data from surveillance cameras and other sources into a centralized command room staffed by analysts up to 20 hours a day.

Critics, including Wilson, have raised concerns about the federal government using surveillance footage to target immigrants.

Seattle Police Department Captain James Britt said earlier this year that data requests from outside agencies — including federal law enforcement — are screened and must comply with state and local laws. “We control where all of our data goes,” Britt said at a press event in July touting the RTCC.

Harrell reiterated the point on Wednesday, saying that third parties cannot obtain footage. He also noted other cities that have similar systems in place.

“We have actually caught criminals because of the technology,” he said.

Harrell last month announced a “responsible AI plan” that provides guidelines for Seattle’s use of artificial intelligence and its support of the AI tech sector as an economic driver.

Seattle and the Nordic nations have strong ties — from Norway’s first astronaut launching on a SpaceX mission to Scandinavian companies supporting the efforts to electrify the region’s ferries. And those connections stretch back more than a century when John Nordstrom, a Swedish immigrant, co-founded an eponymously named shoe store in Seattle’s downtown.

“As we look towards the future, we build on our history and also our heritage. But today, we reach for much more. We are partners in innovation, from high tech in the AI revolution to building more security projects,” said Anniken Huitfeldt, Norway’s ambassador to the United States.

On Tuesday evening, Huitfeldt helped kick off the annual Nordic Innovation Summit, held in Seattle’s Ballard neighborhood at the National Nordic Museum.

The event continues through Wednesday and features speakers and panelists discussing clean energy topics such as data center operations, microgrids and recycling; cyber security initiatives; innovation in biotech; and sustainable transportation.

“We’ve seen innovations come out of the summit,” said Seattle City Councilmember Dan Strauss, speaking Tuesday. “The ability to integrate technology into new business practices is something that has happened here before, and I’m excited to see it occur here again.”

Other speakers at the opening session included University of Washington Nobel Laureate David Baker, who shared new research published since he received his award from the Swedish institution one year ago. Baker is leading efforts that harness AI to create proteins that can be used in health care, environmental cleanup and other challenges.

Norwegian Astronaut Jannicke Mikkelsen livestreamed a presentation from Oslo to share the story of her journey to space, which began at age 10 when she had a devastating horse riding accident. During a five-year recovery, Mikkelsen became obsessed with NASA — even calling the agency’s Johnson Space Center seeking employment as a 12-year-old.

“It cost us a fortune,” she said. “My dad can’t afford to drive his car to work for a week because we can’t afford gas because I called the U.S. and I applied for a job.”

Mikkelsen ultimately pursued a career in 3D photography and 3D filmmaking, residing in Svalbard, a frozen tundra that ranks as one of the world’s northernmost inhabited areas.

“This is a place that equipped me the best to become an astronaut, because it’s sort of fear-based learning,” she said. “As soon as you leave town, any mistake you make could potentially kill you. It’s exceptionally cold. There is no communication to the outside world as you leave town.”

In March of this year, SpaceX — which has significant manufacturing operations in the Seattle region — launched Mikkelsen and three other non-governmental astronauts on the first crewed orbit over the Earth’s polar regions. The Fram2 mission spanned 3½ days. The astronauts performed scientific research, including data collection on the Northern Lights, which are beautiful but poorly understood and can destroy satellites.

Mikkelsen highlighted the importance of the collaboration between nations.

“We have four non-American astronauts on board an American spaceship. This, to me, just shows great trust that the U.S. showed in us,” she said. “But it’s also American technology that flew the first Norwegian astronaut into space.”

Speakers participating in the summit on Wednesday include Mathias Sundin, founder of the Warp Institute Foundation; Douglas Kieper, director of the Paul G. Allen Research Center; Nick Huzar, co-founder of OfferUp; Sunil Gottumukkala, CEO of Averlon; Petri Hautakangas, CEO of Tupl; Maiken Møller-Hansen, director of energy and sustainability for Amazon Devices; and other corporate, government and academic leaders.