Artificial Intelligence Explained

By Bernie Marvin

Artificial Intelligence has been making advances in many ways for both New Hampshire and Vermont. The AI Center for Government has been watching it unfold.

The experience of Artificial Intelligence (AI) builds quickly as a subject in nearly all the locations I visit. I read more each week about its rapid increase as an everyday subject in America and throughout the world. I find it is growing quickly as AI gains attention and understanding among local governments. It is also in the school corridors and administration offices. And the questions about AI are rooted in employee edginess.

Four weeks ago, I registered for a six-week Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Dartmouth summer Lecture Series about AI. I have done other Osher courses, but this opportunity was unique, and I could not pass it up. 

This year is also the 70th anniversary of the 1956 Dartmouth summer research project, in which a small group of scientists gathered to study the assumption that every aspect of learning or any other feature of intelligence can, in principle, be so precisely described that a machine can be built to simulate it. It was during this conference that the term "Artificial Intelligence" was first used.   

Because AI is fairly new on the scene, I wanted to use The Bridge Weekly's Bernie's Beat as a way to get just a few basic thoughts on AI out to readers who may have questions on how people in New Hampshire and Vermont can better understand and use the developing programs for their own business, farm, or family operation, or with their local and state governments.

New Hampshire and Vermont residents are presently adopting artificial intelligence, I am told, to modernize local governance, empower small businesses to optimize agriculture, and build future-ready classrooms while keeping active human relationships at the center. 

Both states feature close-knit communities and small-scale economies, and they are uniquely positioned to use AI as an assistive aid rather than a replacement for human work. 

Some Vermont and New Hampshire towns and state agencies use AI to eliminate fuzzy or stifling bureaucracy and make civic resources accessible to every citizen as easily as possible, without tossing them a 28-page list of zoning regulations and telling them their answer rests somewhere within those paragraphs of all that legalese.

Many zoning and planning laws at the local and state levels in both New Hampshire and Vermont have changed housing density levels, allowed multiple-use buildings in a commercial zone, or agreed with regulations that will allow housing where two years ago housing was prohibited.

In Lebanon, New Hampshire, the city developed a specialized AI agent named "Zoner". It translates complex, dense municipal zoning regulations into simple, conversational answers for residents trying to start home projects or open small businesses. They are still developing the Zoner tool, but it is one way towns or city governments are developing AI tools to make complex zoning and planning rules and regulations easier to understand. 

In May 2026, Governor Phil Scott established the Vermont AI Economic Task Force. The group was fast-tracked to identify five immediate priority areas where AI can help employees deliver faster, more efficient outcomes for Vermonters.

And finally, in some locations, AI is being built for massive corporations, but Northern New Englanders are using it to give small, local operations big-time leverage. Local leaders are using AI to keep track of local government rules. Food cooperatives use it to forecast grocery demand and cut food spoilage, outdoor recreation businesses predict seasonal visitor traffic to optimize inventory, and local manufacturers use generative tools to draft twice as many client proposals.

In New Hampshire, the Citizens' Champions in Action program awarded $50,000 grants to local nonprofits to build "AI Readiness." Organizations use these tools to lower administrative costs and match local donors to community needs much faster.

So, you can see that AI has been making a large impact in finding creative ways to improve communities and people. In the Twin States, people remain skeptical, and recent polls I have seen show that about 66 percent of residents in both New Hampshire and Vermont worry about AI’s impact on local jobs, elections, privacy, and a whole lot more. 

Check out the AI Center for Government website. There is considerable information on the site that readers will find interesting.