Although policymakers have been eager to implement AI, they have been slow to establish new legal protections to safeguard Arkansans against harmful AI systems. The state lacks a comprehensive legal framework to regulate AI products that affect basic human needs, such as healthcare, education, labor, and housing. As a result, the state plans to use taxpayer dollars to build AI systems that make consequential decisions about basic needs without providing residents meaningful legal avenues to shape those decisions and defend their rights. Unfortunately, this is not a new reality for poor and working-class Arkansans. In 2016, the state implemented a controversial algorithm that erroneously reduced Medicaid home- and community-based services for almost half of the beneficiary population, leaving individuals with serious medical conditions without the basic care and assistance to meet their daily needs.

Arkansas’ leaders must choose a different path. Rather than deploying AI against its own people, the state should make common-sense investments to strengthen the digital infrastructure of existing services while codifying comprehensive rights against AI and emerging technologies that affect basic human needs.

In this brief, we detail our findings and offer policy recommendations to ensure Arkansans do not lose access to critical social services because of AI and automation in state-funded programs.