Mike Bare
DemocraticQ1 America has a growing artificial intelligence (AI) industry, supporting cutting edge innovation and reshaping businesses, but raising concerns about education, ownership, and security. Application of AI technology has increased the demand placed on data centers, controversial for their resource use (such as water and land) and raising utility costs. What are your policy positions in regards to data centers and AI? What sources of evidence informed these positions?
I serve on the Legislative Council Study Committee on the use of AI in healthcare. It has become clear to me that we need responsible guardrails on both AI and data centers. On data centers, we must protect public health, the environment, and utility ratepayers. The data centers must pay their fair share, and we should require energy efficiency and renewable energy be used to the biggest extent possible. Local governments should be the ones in control. On AI, we need guardrails that protect people and business, and intellectual property, from runaway AI. There are many potential benefits to scientific discovery and societal advances, but we must develop and deploy these technologies safely.
KEYWORDS: Responsibility, efficiency, guardrails
Q2 Making the US competitive in the bioeconomy (using technology applied to renewable biological resources to produce food, energy and industrial goods) requires innovation and investments in business, academia and government. Please describe policies you will support, if any, that relate to workforce development in Wisconsin’s strengths such as agriculture, biotechnology, and energy; and explain their rationale.
I represent Epic, and many engineering, biotech, and infotech companies and their workers. We have good public schools and the University of Wisconsin, which make us a prime location for growth and economic development in the bioeconomy. I have sponsored legislation to prohibit non-compete acts, and promote prevailing wage. I also worked with the City of Middleton to help Thermo Fisher keep its presence strong in Wisconsin–they had considered moving jobs to other states without this support.
KEYWORDS: Opportunity, grow, maintain
Q3 Wisconsin’s public K-12 education systems have seen a significant decline in the past two decades, with more than 600 public schools closing and statewide student enrollment dropping 7%. These impacts have been especially pronounced in Wisconsin’s many rural counties, where opportunities for STEM education are already fewer. What policies, if any, would you support to improve K-12 education for students across Wisconsin?
Public schools are the bedrock of our communities and economic development. School districts need sufficient funding to stay open and create equitable outcomes for students. Sufficient funding also ensures we can recruit and retain educators in every district, especially those that struggle today to offer a good public education. Those educators need a big raise, good benefits, and a seat at the bargaining table. We also need to create better pipelines from K-12 to higher education in STEM–I’ve had the privilege and hanging out with high schoolers involved with BadgerBots. They spend their Saturday nights building competitive robots. We need to have more of those kinds of experiential opportunities.
KEYWORDS: Funding, educators, pipeline
Q5 If elected, in what capacities would you refer to scientists when you are deciding how to vote on a policy?
I regularly seek out expert opinions on policies we consider. I have done so on AI, housing and building codes, and environmental protection. One of the most interesting experiences of this past session was attending a soil science presentation at a community watershed meeting. The presentation was by a UW-Extension soil science professor. I was absolutely fascinated by this science, and the impact humans are having on our soil. We need scientists to inform our legislating. I own a t-shirt that says “Science doesn’t care what you believe,” and I wear it proudly.
KEYWORDS: Input, soil example, trust
Q7 Wisconsin has faced an increasing number of infectious disease outbreaks in recent years, for instance with rising numbers of measles and avian influenza cases that threaten human health and agricultural industry, respectively. What policies, if any, would you support to manage the burden of infectious disease in the state and respond to future outbreaks?
I am the lead sponsor of a bill to restore public health officers’ powers that the Republicans in the Legislature took away during the COVID-19 pandemic. These officers need to be able to control this spread of disease. Recent outbreaks just reinforce this. Before being elected to the Legislature, I taught graduate courses in public health policy at the UW-Milwaukee Zilber School of Public Health. We need to educate people on the benefits of all working together and that we are not autonomous units. We are interconnected, and our health is determined by far more than just our individual actions. It is a product of factors that are mostly out of our individual control, but together we can protect and improve public health.
KEYWORDS: Empower, educate, together