Governor Albert Bryan Jr. took the stage at the Westin Beach Resort & Spa on St. Thomas on Thursday to open the Governor's Digital Conference with a speech blending humour, candid language and technology policy.
Bryan began by mimicking President Donald Trump's style of accepting applause from different sections of an audience. "Every time people get up I always think of Trump, I want to do what Trump does," he said, describing how Trump pauses to let crowds clap from multiple sides before moving on.
The governor then turned to artificial intelligence, citing warnings from Sam Altman, co-founder of OpenAI and ChatGPT. Altman told attendees at a 2015 tech conference that "AI will probably most likely lead to the end of the world, but in the meantime, there'll be great companies." Bryan urged Virgin Islanders to set aside fears of machines taking over and focus instead on technology's benefits.
Over his eight years in office, Bryan highlighted efforts to expand free public internet to beaches, parks, public housing communities, schools and libraries across the territory. He also noted that the government has distributed laptops to every public school student, describing it as "a dream of mine I never thought we'd realize."
However, students at Kean High School told The Daily News this week that they can no longer take laptops home, complicating homework completion outside school hours. The Department of Planning and Natural Resources confirmed that no libraries currently operate in the St. Thomas-St. John District. On St. Croix, only the Florence Williams Public Library in Christiansted remains open, with hours from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday.
Bryan proposed using AI to build an online portal allowing residents to enrol in multiple government services simultaneously, including food assistance and healthcare. He said such a system could cut processing time from three days to two minutes.
During a panel discussion led by Michelle Francis, director of the Office of Health Information Technology, Bryan stressed the urgency of technological change in government. Personnel Director Cindy Richardson described launching a learning management system for central government employees after years of seeking funding, using American Rescue Plan Act money and completing procurement and backend work in about a year.
Office of Management and Budget Director Julio Rhymer cautioned that agencies often pursue technology projects independently, leading to integration failures that can cost five times the original investment. He called for a unified technology strategy to prevent duplicate spending.
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