Governor Gavin Newsom (D-CA) announced that the state has implemented three tools in a partnership with GenAI in an effort he described as “DOGE but better.”
Speaking at Accenture’s headquarters in Los Angeles, Newsom said the artificial intelligence will reduce traffic, improve road safety, and will support customer service.
“GenAI is here, and it’s growing in importance every day. We know that state government can be more efficient, and as the birthplace of tech it is only natural that California leads in this space,” Newsom said in a statement. “In the Golden State, we know that efficiency means more than cutting services to save a buck, but instead building and refining our state government to better serve all Californians.”
Newsom further stated during a press conference that he “could have easily come in here with sunglasses and chainsaws — you know where I’m going — and gotten your attention,” adding, “We’re DOGE but better.”
According to a press release on the matter, the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) will also use GenAI to identify high-collision areas.
“By analyzing various datasets—including crash records, roadway conditions, and equity indicators—GenAI uncovered patterns, prioritized safety interventions, and delivered data-driven insights to help the department better protect all Californians on the road,” the release explained.
The development supports Newsom’s executive order on generative artificial intelligence. “GenAI has the potential to catalyze innovation and the rapid development of a wide range of benefits for Californians and the California economy, such as advances in medicine, wildfire forecasting and prevention, and climate science, and to push the bounds of human creativity and capacity,” the order reads.
Newsom previously called Elon Musk’s DOGE a “promo stunt.”
“We’ve been working, I don’t know, before DOGE was DOGE,” he said in December. “I don’t know, this is like a promo project.”
“We’ve been doing civil service reform in this state, we’ve been consolidating job classifications, we’ve been updating job descriptions in this state and we waived those requirements,” Newsom continued. “And in fact, I think it was in August, earlier, in August, we came up with your shop. We’re gonna double that next year. In fact, by 32,000, it’ll be 62,000 positions we will have eliminated those barriers and that requirement. I’ve always been a leader in that space.”
