TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) — Leon County and community partners are developing a program for seniors to navigate online scams and to harness artificial intelligence.
A 1.5-hour seminar series will be rolled out in Leon County libraries and streamed online.
The goal is to help seniors become more digitally literate.
Watch the video to find out why the program is needed.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
If you spend any time online or on a mobile device, you’ve probably been the victim of receiving a scam text. Now, a new program is being rolled out for our seniors. It’s about how to detect, navigate and avoid online scams. It will also help neighbors understand and use artificial intelligence.
“It’s something that unless you are truly trained on, what are some of the signs that I should be aware of, it makes it very difficult to fight against that,” said James Taylor, CEO of Florida Technology Council.
One of the reasons why Taylor said they’re targeting seniors with this program. Because technology is changing fast, technology leaders said scams are becoming harder to detect.
“They can take voice from a video online, from your Facebook account, spoof a voice of your loved one and call you with that, right?” said Kristy Tillman, collaborator and former product design director at Netflix.
The information will be presented in a series of hour-and-a-half-long seminars, streamed online, and held at the Leon County public libraries.
“It will provide an entryway for our citizens to be able to get that kind of hands-on, and being in a trusted environment with trusted people that they can ensure that they’re being trained correctly,” said Tillman.
According to the FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center, an average senior victimized by internet scams loses approximately $34,000.
“The more we can create awareness about the technology that’s out there and develop more resilience, the better informed our community will be,” said Leon County Commissioner Rick Minor.
Technology leaders said there is a focus on accessibility and breaking down topics, such as AI, that often seem intimidating.
“I would love for the community to have a safe, responsible place to come get a series of trainings, and be able to feel like they have the confidence to go out into the world and start to interact with AI comfortably,” said Tillman.
Commissioner Minor said the county is working with a focus group now to develop the program. They hope to roll it out to libraries in the fall.
TransHumanity Ltd., a spinout from Loughborough University, has secured approximately £400,000 in pre-seed investment. The round was led by SFC Capital, the UK’s most active seed-stage investor, with additional investment from Silicon Valley-based Plug and Play.
TransHumanity’s vision is to empower faster, smarter human decisions by transforming data into accessible intelligence using large language model based agentic AI.
Agentic AI refers to artificial intelligence systems that collaborate with people to reach specific goals, understanding and responding in plain English. These systems use AI “agents” — models that can gather information, make suggestions, and carry out tasks in real time — helping people solve problems more quickly and effectively.
TransHumanity’s first product, AptIq, is designed to help transport authorities quickly analyse transport data and models, turning days of analysis into seconds.
By simply asking questions in plain English, users can gain instant insights to support key initiatives like congestion reduction, road safety, creation of business cases and net-zero targets.
Dr Haitao He, Co-founder and Director of TransHumanity, said: “I am proud to see my rigorous research translated into trusted real-world AI innovation for the transport sector. With this investment, we can now realise my Future Leaders Fellowship vision, scaling a technology that empowers authorities across the UK to deliver integrated, net-zero transport.”
Developed from rigorous research by Dr Haitao He, a UKRI Future Leaders Fellow in Transport AI at Loughborough University, AptIq, previously known as TraffEase, has already garnered significant recognition.
The technology was named a Top 10 finalist for the 2024 Manchester Prize for AI innovation and was recently highlighted as one of the Top 40 UK tech start-ups at London Tech Week by the UK Department for Business and Trade.
Adam Beveridge, Investment Principal at SFC Capital, said: “We are excited to back TransHumanity. The combination of cutting-edge research, a proven founding team, clear market demand, and positive societal impact makes this exactly the kind of high-growth venture we are committed to supporting.”
AptIq is currently in a test deployment with Nottingham City Council and Transport for Greater Manchester, with plans to expand to other city, regional, and national authorities across the UK within the next 12 months.
With a product roadmap that includes diverse data sources, advanced analytics and giving the user full control over the AI tool when required, interest from the transport sector is already high. Professor Nick Jennings, Vice-Chancellor and President of Loughborough University, noted: “I am delighted to see TransHumanity fast-tracked from lab to investment-ready spinout.
This journey was accelerated by TransHumanity’s selection as a finalist in the prestigious Manchester Prize and shows what’s possible when the University’s ambition aligns with national innovation policy.”
An oversimplified approach I have taken in the past to explain wisdom is to share that “We don’t know what we don’t know until we know it.” This absolutely applies to the fast-moving AI space, where unknowingly introducing legal and compliance risk through an organization’s use of AI is a top concern among IT leaders.
We’re now building systems that learn and evolve on their own, and that raises new questions along with new kinds of risk affecting contracts, compliance, and brand trust.
At Broadcom, we’ve adopted what I’d call a thoughtful ‘move smart and then fast’’ approach. Every AI use case requires sign-off from both our legal and information security teams. Some folks may complain, saying it slows them down. But if you’re moving fast with AI and putting sensitive data at risk, you’re also inviting trouble if you don’t also move smart.
Here are seven things I’ve learned about collaborating with legal teams on AI projects.
1. Partner with Legal Early On
Don’t wait until the AI service is built to bring legal in. There’s always the risk that choices you make about data, architecture, and system behavior can create regulatory headaches or break contracts later on.
Besides, legal doesn’t need every answer on day one. What they do need is visibility into the gray areas. What data are you using and producing? How does the model make decisions? Could those decisions shift over time? Walk them through what you’re building and flag the parts that still need figuring out.
2. Document Your Decisions as You Go
AI projects move fast with teams needing to make dozens of early decisions on everything from data sources to training logic. So, it’s only natural that a few months later, chances are no one remembers why those choices were made. Then someone from compliance shows up with questions about those choices, and you’ve got nothing to point to.
To avoid that situation, keep a simple log as you work. Then, should a subsequent audit or inquiry occur, you’ll have something solid to help answer any questions.
3. Build Systems You Can Explain
Legal teams need to understand your system so they can explain it to regulators, procurement officers, or internal risk reviewers. If they can’t, there’s the risk that your project could stall or even fail after it ships.
I’ve seen teams consume SaaS-based AI services without realizing the provider could swap out a backend AI model without their knowledge. If that leads to changes in the system’s behavior behind the scenes, it could redirect your data in ways you didn’t intend. That’s one reason why you’ve got to know your AI supply chain, top to bottom. Ensure that services you build or consume have end-to-end auditability of the AI software supply chain. Legal can’t defend a system if they don’t understand how it works.
4. Watch Out for Shadow AI
Any engineer can subscribe to an AI service and accept the provider’s terms without knowing they don’t have the authority to do that on behalf of the company.
That exposes the organization to major risk. An engineer might accidentally agree to data-sharing terms that violate regulatory restrictions or expose sensitive customer data to a third party.
And it’s not just deliberate use anymore. Run a search in Google and you’re already getting AI output. It’s everywhere. The best way to avoid this is by building a culture where employees are aware of the legal boundaries. You can give teams a safe place to experiment, but at the same time, make sure you know what tools they’re using and what data they’re touching.
5. Help Legal Navigate Contract Language
AI systems get tangled in contract language; there are ownership rights, retraining rules, model drift, and more. Most engineers aren’t trained to spot those issues, but we’re the ones who understand how the systems behave.
That’s another reason why you’ve got to know your AI supply chain, top to bottom. In this case, when legal needs our help in reviewing vendor or customer agreements to put the contractual language into the appropriate technical context. What happens when the model changes? How are sensitive data sets safeguarded from being indexed or accessed via AI agents such as those that use Model Context Protocol (MCP)? We can translate the technical behavior into simple English—and that goes a long way toward helping the lawyers write better contracts.
6. Design with Auditability in Mind
AI is developing rapidly, with legal frameworks, regulatory requirements, and customer expectations evolving to keep pace. You need to be prepared for what might come next.
Can you explain where your training data came from? Can you show how the model was tested for bias? Can you justify how it works? If someone from a regulatory body walked in tomorrow, would you be ready?
Design with auditability in mind. Especially when AI agents are chained together, you need to be able to prove that identity and access controls are enforced end-to-end.
7. Handle Customer Data with Care
We don’t get to make decisions on behalf of our customers about how their data gets used. It’s their data. And when it’s private, it shouldn’t be fed to a model. Period.
You’ve got to be disciplined about what data gets ingested. If your AI tool indexes everything by default, that can get messy fast. Are you touching private logs or passing anything to a hosted model without realizing it? Support teams might need access to diagnostic logs but that doesn’t mean third-party models should touch them. Tools are rapidly evolving that can generate comparable synthetic data devoid of any customer private data that could help with support use cases for example, but these tools and techniques should be fully vetted with your legal and CISO organizations prior to using them.
The Reality
The engineering ethos is to move fast. But since safety and trust are on the line, you need to move smart, which means it’s okay if things take a little longer. The extra steps are worth it when they help protect your customers and your company.
Nobody has this all figured out. So ask questions by talking to people who’ve handled this kind of work before. The goal isn’t perfection—it’s to make smart, careful progress. For enterprises, the AI race isn’t a question of “Who’s best?” but rather “Who’s leveraging AI safely to drive the best business outcomes.”
Progress Software, a company offering artificial intelligence-powered digital experience and infrastructure software, has launched Progress Federal Solutions, a wholly owned subsidiary that aims to deliver AI-powered technologies to the federal, defense and public sectors.
Progress Federal Solutions to Boost Digital Transformation
The company said Monday the new subsidiary, announced during the Progress Data Platform Summit at the International Spy Museum in Washington, D.C., is intended to fast-track federal agencies’ digital modernization efforts, meet compliance requirements, and advance AI and data initiatives. The subsidiary leverages MarkLogic’s data management and integration expertise, a platform that Progress Software acquired in 2023.
Progress Federal Solutions functions independently but will offer the company’s full technology portfolio, including Progress Data Platform, Progress Sitefinity, Progress Chef, Progress LoadMaster and Progress MOVEit. These will be available to the public sector through Carahsoft Technology‘s reseller partners and contract vehicles.
Remarks From Progress Federal Solutions, Carahsoft Executives
“Federal and defense agencies are embracing data-centric strategies and modernizing legacy systems at a faster pace than ever. That’s why we focus on enabling data-driven decision-making, faster time to value and measurable ROI,” said Cori Moore, president of Progress Federal Solutions.
“Progress is a trusted provider of AI-enabled solutions that address complex data, infrastructure and digital experience needs. Their technologies empower government agencies to build high-impact applications, automate operations and scale securely to meet program goals,” said Michael Shrader, vice president of intelligence and innovative solutions at Carahsoft.
