MON AM News: UW AI dean says universities should be ‘counterbalance’ to industry; Pharmacy benefit managers bill tops ROFR for most lobbied legislation this session

August 24, 2026

— The founding dean of UW-Madison’s new College of Computing & Artificial Intelligence sees universities as a “counterbalance” to industry in the AI field, ensuring the technology benefits society.

Remzi Arpaci-Dusseau, who led the effort to recently launch the university’s first new college in more than 40 years, discussed his vision for its role during a recent UW Now webinar hosted by the Wisconsin Alumni Association.

“It’s an opportunity, but it’s more so a responsibility to really shape this technology for individual good, for public good,” he said. “Industry … it’s of course huge and powerful, the biggest industries in the world are participating, in fact, in a race to be the leaders in this space.”

That includes established tech companies like Google as well as newer players such as OpenAI and Anthropic. Arpaci-Dusseau discussed the concern among these firms that one of their competitors will develop AI enough to “get way ahead” of the others, driving advancement in the sophistication of available models.

“But a counterbalance needs to be somewhere, and the university is a perfect place for that, to give a clear-eyed, balanced view,” he said, adding “it is also a huge opportunity to accelerate research … to build new companies, and that’s happening all around us.”

But despite the opportunity and responsibility presented by the AI wave, Arpaci-Dusseau cautioned “there’s many problems” with the technology, warning it’s not a panacea.

He pointed to a study in the Harvard Business Review that found large language models consistently recommend strategies that align with current buzzwords rather than offering a true depth of knowledge. While AI chatbots can create large amounts of “seemingly authoritative” text very rapidly, that can prove to be deceptively shallow.

At the same time, college students face a “danger of overdependence” given that AI can easily provide answers to many questions they face in their studies, Arpaci-Dusseau said.

“It can be an angel on your shoulder, helping you understand something but it can also be the opposite of that, because you go to the answer too soon instead of going through the learning process,” he said.

He also noted his personal pet peeve with AI: trying too hard to anthropomorphize the technology with analogies, such as describing a tool as “like a PhD” or a team of software developers.

“It’s really not any of those things,” he said. “It’s a piece of software that does certain things well and certain things poorly, and we should just treat it as such.”

While students navigate this new landscape, educators are also facing challenges such as having to adjust their assessments to ensure students are actually learning the skills they need, rather than just going to ChatGPT.

“There’s a danger, learning is hard. It’s hard to learn,” he said. “I remember the hardest things I learned, I would sit with for minutes, hours, and you have to go through that to really learn something new. So there’s a struggle there, and if you don’t engage in that struggle, you’re not learning.”

Watch the video.

— Legislation to place new regulations on pharmacy benefit managers just nipped “right of first refusal” for the most lobbied bill this session, according to a WisPolitics check of Ethics Commission records.

They were two of the four 10 most lobbied bills that failed to clear the Legislature this session, along with one that would require the DNR to notify local governments of groundwater and PFAS contamination and another that would allow community solar projects.

The work on those bills could carry over into the 2027-28 session, and their chances of passage could hinge on who’s in charge of the chambers and the governor’s office.

Right of first refusal, for example, failed partly due to deep divisions within the Senate GOP caucus over the bill, which was co-authored by Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu, R-Oostburg.

The legislation sought to give utilities with existing infrastructure in Wisconsin the first crack at building new transmission lines. Conservative groups such as Americans for Prosperity opposed the bill, arguing that allowing them to be competitively bid would drive down the cost of the work. Meanwhile, proponents – including utilities and unions – countered the costs of those lines could be spread to ratepayers in other states if ROFR were law in Wisconsin.

The bill didn’t get a floor vote in either house this session after passing the Assembly the previous session.

Senate Minority Leader Dianne Hesselbein, D-Middleton, told a WisPolitics luncheon in June that Dems could take up the legislation if they have a trifecta next session.

“We absolutely should have gotten ROFR done,” Hesselbein said. “It was going to let Wisconsin companies do the work. It was good for Wisconsin jobs. It was good for Wisconsin unions.”

While groups reported spending 2,320 hours on ROFR, they spent 2,360 hours lobbying on the pharmacy benefit managers bill.

PBMs serve as brokers between drugmakers, health insurance companies and pharmacies. SB 203 and AB 173 sought to require them to allow patients to use any pharmacy in Wisconsin without penalty. The legislation also sought to require companies to pay pharmacists a dispensing fee equal to at least what the state pays through the Medicaid program.

Sen. Mary Felzkowski, R-Tomahawk, also introduced the legislation in the 2023-24 session, when the bill didn’t advance out of committee. This session, the Senate version passed committee unanimously, while the Assembly bill received a hearing in that chamber but no committee vote.

Felzkowski told WisPolitics the legislation failed this session, in part, because of GOP opposition in both houses, including leadership. She said it lacked 17 votes in the Senate GOP caucus, creating a roadblock in that chamber.

Felzkowski also said the bill faced challenges because of the number of provisions it included. That included proposed changes that ranged from impacting employers that utilize mail-order prescription drugs to provisions that critics said could encourage people to use higher-cost drugs.

Those who lobbied against the bill included Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce, the Wisconsin Association of Health Plans and the Alliance of Health Insurers.

Felzkowski, who served as Senate president this session, said her preference is to keep the provisions as one bill, but she might consider breaking it up. She also told WisPolitics new leadership in both houses and changes in caucus composition would change the dynamic for the legislation.

“I will guarantee you no matter who’s in charge that it will be a top 10 topic next session,” Felzkowski said.

See more on the most-lobbied bills here.

— The Wisconsin Farmers Union is spotlighting the impact of healthcare funding cuts and hospital closures on rural communities in the state.

In a recent video published with progressive policy group A Better Wisconsin Together, the farming organization featured the perspective of Pam Guthman, a Chippewa County Farmers Union member and nurse.

“When the closures of the hospitals and clinics happened, I was still working as a school nurse here in our local community, local school district,” Guthman said. “People ended up with delayed care, delayed medications, caused huge disruptions in pharmacies, still haven’t recovered as well.”

Hospital Sisters Health System in 2024 shut down Sacred Heart Hospital in Eau Claire and St. Joseph’s Hospital in Chippewa Falls along with Prevea Health clinics in the region, prompting concerns about healthcare access for local residents.

Guthman also warned of the ripple effects from federal cuts to Medicaid and the SNAP footstamps program among farming communities like the one she grew up in, calling them “devastating and disproportionate” to rural residents of Wisconsin.

She noted nearly 10% of county residents are impacted by SNAP benefits being reduced.

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act cut funding for the federal program by $186 billion over a decade, according to a study in the National Library of Medicine.

“We’re caught in a system of policies that have been handed down by our current policymakers that are looking at this, in my opinion, from a lens of stigmatization, from you know, oppression,” Guthman said, arguing the administration is “not trusting us as hard-working Wisconsinites and American people.”

Watch the video.

— State health officials issued a warning to consumers after one person in Wisconsin was hospitalized due to contamination of alfalfa sprouts sold under the Everything Sprouts and Calco brands.

The Department of Health Services has confirmed 17 cases of the dangerous “Shiga” toxin-producing E.coli and Salmonella bacteria in Wisconsin linked to eating sprouts from these Minneapolis-based brands. The cases are connected to a multi-state outbreak of these infections coming from alfalfa distributed to grocery stores and restaurants.

Just next door, Minnesota has identified 23 cases related to the outbreak. Meanwhile, federal health officials have reported 55 cases and four hospitalizations across fifteen states.

While a public health investigation is ongoing, DHS is warning state residents to throw away any alfalfa sprouts from the brands it’s identified. The agency warns anyone who’s eaten them already should look out for symptoms, including stomach cramps, diarrhea and bloody stool and sometimes fever.

While most people recover within a week, DHS notes these infections can cause a severe condition called hemolytic uremic syndrome that can lead to kidney failure.

Meanwhile, the agency on Friday announced Wisconsin now has 41 confirmed and seven probable measles cases associated with the outbreak in southwestern Wisconsin.

For more of the most relevant health care news, reports on groundbreaking research in Wisconsin, links to top stories and more, sign up today for the free daily Health Care Report from WisPolitics and WisBusiness.com.

Sign up here.

— A Wausau-based marketing firm is launching a privately funded small business program next month, offering $50,000 in services for nine recipients.

Tech Turtle Websites & Marketing will provide in-kind marketing, website work, automation and lead management services through the program starting next month. Recipients will be chosen through a competitive review.

Applicants must operate a small business that primarily serves customers in Wisconsin, have an active in-state presence, and demonstrate a “genuine business need” for the support.

Company founder Logen Doiel says the idea for the program arose from observations that the website, marketing and technology side of many Wisconsin businesses “simply hasn’t caught up” with the rest of their operation.

“Sometimes the owner knows exactly what needs to change, but spending several thousand dollars on it keeps getting pushed behind payroll, equipment, inventory, vehicles, or the hundred other things that come first when you run a small business,” he said in an email. “We decided we were in a position to help with that directly.”

Applications are being accepted Sept. 1 through Oct. 31.

See details.

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