Utah’s Office of AI Policy outlines sandbox activity, mental‑health and youth risks, and national coordination

The interim Business, Labor and Commerce Committee received the 2025 annual report for the Office of AI Policy from Director Zach Boyd, who described three office programs — a regulatory mitigation (sandbox) program, a learning laboratory for deep policy studies, and continuous observation of AI‑related risks — and discussed recent activities and future bills.

‘‘We have three tasks that you guys have given us,’’ Boyd said. ‘‘First is to balance protection of the public with fostering of innovation.’’ Boyd told the committee the office aims to provide temporary regulatory relief for carefully scoped AI pilots, to gather outcome data, and to recommend permanent legal changes when practices and best practices become clear.

Boyd said the AI sandbox functions similarly to the GOEO sandbox: companies apply and the office crafts a temporary, written agreement that defines testing conditions, required data collection and reporting. He said most initial inquiries do not require mitigation, but that applications have accelerated: ‘‘in the last 3 or 4 months, things have really had an uptick. We're getting about one application a week now from companies in all kinds of sectors,’’ Boyd said.

Examples presented to…