This week in the 802
1. Montpelier: the state is using AI as a “power tool.”
Vermont’s chief data and AI officer, Josiah Raiche, told StateScoop (Oct. 2) the state has moved into an “enablement phase.” About 100 state developers have been trained to use AI tools to find and fix security holes across roughly 1,100 state applications, with another 50 developers expected to join the training. Compass Vermont reports the work has produced patches for several dozen applications, and that developers review and test changes before they go in.
The most relatable example: Secretary of State staff checking hundreds of draft ballots against a spreadsheet of about 3,000 candidates, days before the print deadline. The AI flagged likely errors as a first pass. Staff then reviewed every ballot themselves. Raiche said the job took three hours.
https://statescoop.com/how-vermont-is-leveraging-ai-across-government-one-power-tool-at-a-time/
2. Statehouse: lawmakers say they found out by accident.
That security work runs on a free six-month trial of Anthropic’s Claude Code, signed June 15, worth $100,000 in usage credits. Rep. Laura Sibilia, I-Dover, says she learned of it at a state tech conference on Aug. 4. She has asked who authorized it, what Vermont agreed to, and whether the credits count as a “thing of value” that needs legislative approval. The Agency of Digital Services says it does not, and that it did not treat the free evaluation as a procurement.
At the Sept. 30 oversight hearing, the agency said developers sent pieces of test and development code, not live systems with Vermonters’ records. The agency’s written answers, dated Oct. 7, say no personal information or Vermonters’ data was reviewed, and that future trials like this will go through the state’s full contract review. The trial is set to be added to the state’s public AI inventory in January 2027.
Still open, per Compass Vermont: the signed agreement itself has not been made public, and it is unclear whether Vermont used Anthropic’s scanner after Aug. 21, when that tool switched to its more powerful Mythos model.
https://www.vermontpublic.org/local-news/2026-09-29/scott-administration-using-ai-probe-weaknesses-state-systems
https://www.wcax.com/2026/09/30/lawmakers-raise-transparency-concerns-vermont-deploys-ai-cybersecurity-tools/
http://legislature.vermont.gov/Documents/2026/Workgroups/JITOC/Agency%20of%20Digital%20Services/W~Denise%20Reilly-Hughes~ADS%20Response%20to%20SLTT~10-7-2026.pdf
3. Agency of Digital Services: the secretary is leaving.
Gov. Phil Scott announced Oct. 7 that Digital Services Secretary Denise Reilly-Hughes is leaving for a private-sector job. Her last day is Oct. 16. Deputy Andrea DeLaBruere will serve as interim secretary. The departure lands mid-trial, with the Anthropic evaluation running through December and a $70 million overhaul of state HR and finance systems underway.
https://vtdigger.org/2026/10/07/vermont-digital-services-secretary-denise-reilly-hughes-to-leave-role-for-private-sector/
If it lands here
Constant Contact launched a connector inside Claude (Oct. 7). Existing customers can describe their business, audience, and goal in a Claude chat, get an email or social draft back, and hand it to Constant Contact to finish and send. For many Vermont shops and nonprofits already on Constant Contact, that is the newsletter workflow moving into the chat window. A person still hits send.
https://www.intelligentsme.tech/2026/10/07/constant-contact-launches-in-claude-to-power-ai-driven-marketing/
The number
20.0%. Keyhole Software’s state ranking (Sept. 29) puts Vermont 27th for business AI use, averaged over May to August 2026. The most recent round in that data came in higher, at 24.4%. Middle of the pack, and moving.
https://keyholesoftware.com/ai-adoption-rate-by-state/
Try this / skip this
Try this: the ballot trick works at small scale. Have AI do the first pass on a list check (names, spellings, counts), then you review every line anyway. It speeds up the checking. It does not replace it.
Skip this: signing a free AI trial at work without telling whoever is supposed to know. Free still means someone should ask what you agreed to.
Also in the pile
Planet Hank: the Sept. 4 federal ruling still stands. It blocks the attorney general’s investigation over one AI satire video under Act 75, the election deepfake disclosure law. The broader challenge to the law is still pending. https://vtdigger.org/2026/09/09/federal-judge-blocks-vermont-ags-probe-of-planet-hank-ai-video/
Pathfinders: state agencies are picking trusted, not-necessarily-techy employees for early AI tool training, about a three-month head start on their teams. (StateScoop, above.)
Liability cap: the unsigned standard Anthropic agreement attached to the lawmakers’ memo caps either side’s liability at $1,000. (Compass Vermont, above.)
Close
From Wallingford. Drafted with tools, edited here. If a fact is wrong, hello@aiinthe802.com.
Reply and tell us: has your town office, school board, or shop tried AI on a checking job like the ballots? What happened?