Chris Given
California State Chief Information Officer and Director of the California Department of Technology, appointed April 2026. Formerly led the team that built IRS Direct File and served as Deputy Secretary for Technology and Innovation at CA Government Operations Agency.
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APPEARANCES
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PODCASTS
Aug 11, 2026
Chris GivenGUEST
I mean, I think Poppy is a great example of this sort of service that CTC can grow into.
Chris GivenGUEST
Recognizing that a lot of departments are dipping their toes in the water of AI, we wanted to create a product that was a good fit to those use cases.
Chris GivenGUEST
As we look out at the roadmap, we're exploring features like one's called Poppy Learns.
Chris GivenGUEST
Very focused on how do we provide a safe environment for departments to experiment with AI and to find promising use cases.
Chris GivenGUEST
That came down to, we had to price that very creatively because we wanted to make this something that could be rolled out very broadly by a department, recognizing that some people are going to get heavy use out of it and other people are going to be very skeptical.
9 MINS LATER