{"id":15202,"date":"2025-12-16T16:05:59","date_gmt":"2025-12-16T23:05:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/four-corners-ai-conference-explores-artificial-intelligence-in-rural-communities\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:45:18","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T03:45:18","slug":"four-corners-ai-conference-explores-artificial-intelligence-in-rural-communities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/four-corners-ai-conference-explores-artificial-intelligence-in-rural-communities\/","title":{"rendered":"Four Corners AI Conference explores artificial intelligence in rural communities"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Tom
Tom Miaskiewicz, associate professor of marketing at Fort Lewis College, gives a presentation to some 600 attendees at the Four Corners AI Conference on Tuesday. He spoke about the evolution of the technology and how rural communities like Durango could benefit. (Scout Edmondson\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The Four Corners AI Conference held Tuesday at Fort Lewis College explored on how rural communities could responsibly implement one of the fastest-growing technologies in the world.<\/p>\n

The conference covered a wide range of topics<\/a> \u2013 from how AI could be used in education, small businesses and nonprofits. But attendees also asked speakers about the regulatory, environmental and ethical concerns AI has raised.<\/p>\n

FLC Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs Mario Martinez said this was the second AI conference FLC has put on. Both were meant to provide a space for the community to have a conversation about AI, what it does and how rural areas like the Four Corners stand to be impacted.<\/p>\n

Fast-forward a year, and AI has grown exponentially. It is being adopted by governments and businesses around the world, Martinez said \u2013 including by professors at FLC. The reception of the first conference was hugely positive. When the second one was announced, the 600-seat FLC Concert Hall immediately sold out.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter how you feel about it, but really the landscape of AI has changed,\u201d he said in an interview before the conference. \u201cA year ago, people were asking the question, \u2018Should I think about implementing AI in my organization?\u2019 Today, really question is, \u2018How do I begin to implement it?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

The conference was sponsored by Fort Lewis College, Durango Chamber of Commerce, La Plata Economic Development Alliance and Ballantine Communications Inc., which owns The Durango Herald.<\/em><\/p>\n

It opened with a conversation with Martinez, Durango City Manager Jos\u00e9 Madrigal and Durango School District Superintendent Karen Cheser. AI has already become implemented in Durango\u2019s government operations and in its schools.<\/p>\n

For Cheser, the technology could improve learning in the classroom and give teachers more time to create enriching experiences for their students. She pointed to how it streamlines lesson planning for teachers and gives students with learning challenges like ADHD a tool to summarize complicated material. AI could level the playing field between students in wealthy urban settings and rural Southwest Colorado by giving rural students the same tools when they enter the workforce.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe would say it\u2019s making our classrooms more human,\u201d Cheser said.<\/p>\n

Madrigal said the city has been using the technology as a tool to improve efficiencies. By making a machine do procedural work like open records requests or approving building permits, city administrators are able to better help residents one-on-one. The challenge facing the city, he said, is making sure the technology is used ethically and that the city\u2019s data is secure \u2013 particularly with the city\u2019s police department.<\/p>\n

\u201cAI can\u2019t replace empathy, it can\u2019t replace the human feel,\u201d Madrigal said.<\/p>\n

FLC Associate Professor of Marketing Tom Miaskiewicz spoke on the technology\u2019s evolution and environmental footprint. He said that though AI strains water and energy sources like other industries do, it is quickly becoming more efficient. One source he pointed to found AI had become 33% more efficient in the past year. It has the potential to enable human growth, and could help innovate carbon capture and renewable energy, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAI could expand what we are capable of attempting,\u201d he said. \u201cIt allows us to attempt things that were not possible in the past.\u201d<\/p>\n

Luke Norris, co-founder of AI orchestration platform Kamiwaza.ai<\/a>, was a keynote speaker at the event. His company focuses on sovereign AI, or the ability for enterprises to own their data and run AI systems completely within their control.<\/p>\n

Norris gave a presentation about the specifics of how AI is being implemented in government and what he called the \u201cFifth Industrial Revolution\u201d \u2013 wherein human civilization could become exponentially more productive, allowing for more innovation. But, as AI becomes more commonplace, it will likely cause economic upheaval \u2013 especially in the job market, where roles previously held by people will be filled by more efficient machines.<\/p>\n

\u201cAI is helping automate, and that is going to be painful,\u201d Norris said in an earlier interview. \u201cI do think in the short term, the job issue is overblown. And in the long term \u2013 I\u2019m talking in the two to three year horizon \u2013 I think it\u2019s underblown. I think it is going to be a massive shift, but right around that point, we should hit the Fifth Industrial Revolution, and at that point we\u2019re actually getting the gains associated with AI.\u201d<\/p>\n

The second keynote speaker of the day was Angelo Baca, a Din\u00e9\/Hopi assistant professor at the Rhode Island School of Design. He has been a leader in conversations concerning Indigenous intellectual property and artificial intelligence in Native American communities.<\/p>\n

\u201cNative communities are not really quite educated to form a real strong opinion on it yet,\u201d Baca said in an interview. \u201cI\u2019m trying to get people to do more of this work to meet tribes more than halfway. We\u2019re moving at such an exponential rate that Native communities are not going to really have quite a strong enough grasp on it to make informed decisions. And what we find ourselves repeating are the same cycles of extracting knowledge and exploiting different types of Indigenous knowledge sets.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said the breakneck pace of AI\u2019s implementation has not allowed communities \u2013 particularly sovereign Indigenous nations \u2013 time to consider consenting to using the technology. That is why he has focused on protecting Indigenous peoples\u2019 intellectual property from AI companies, which have also had an issue with cultural appropriation, he said.<\/p>\n

sedmondson@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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