California's Poppy Shows How Government Can Use AI Safely

California built Poppy, an AI assistant for 2,600 state employees, on secure networks using only data from official government sites. This isolated setup eliminates major security risks: data breaches, malicious prompts, and false answers from unreliable sources. By proving AI can work within strict boundaries, California demonstrates a middle ground for other agencies—between banning the technology outright and deploying commercial systems with minimal safeguards.