SCETA Launches ASCENDSC™, a Statewide Framework for South Carolina’s Digital Future

Initiative connects artificial intelligence, digital infrastructure, energy, identity, privacy, rural prosperity, and public trust

Charleston, South Carolina — The South Carolina Emerging Tech Association today announced the formal launch of ASCENDSC™, a statewide framework designed to help South Carolina navigate the transition to an AI-enhanced and increasingly digital economy.

ASCENDSC brings together SCETA’s work on artificial intelligence, compute infrastructure, energy, digital identity, payments, privacy, digital assets, rural development, and constitutional protections.

The framework is not designed to promote one company, project, or technology. It is intended to help policymakers, regulators, utilities, businesses, educators, investors, local governments, and citizens evaluate South Carolina’s digital future through consistent principles of transparency, accountability, innovation, and public trust.

“South Carolina is no longer debating isolated technologies,” said Dennis Fassuliotis, President of SCETA. “AI, energy, compute, identity, payments, privacy, workforce development, and capital formation are increasingly connected. ASCENDSC gives the state a practical framework for addressing them together.”

The launch follows SCETA’s statewide Public Listening Initiative, which invited South Carolinians to respond to questions involving digital infrastructure, surveillance, energy, property rights, privacy, digital identity, and economic growth.

From June 1 to date, the campaign has generated more than 47,300 Facebook views, 389 content interactions, and conversations across more than 30 South Carolina community groups.

The responses revealed a consistent message. South Carolinians want clearer standards, greater transparency, protection for ratepayers and property owners, responsible use of natural resources, and a meaningful voice in decisions that may reshape their communities.

“The Public Listening Initiative is how we listen,” Fassuliotis said. “ASCENDSC is how we begin turning those conversations into practical policy.”

ASCENDSC serves as the umbrella for several SCETA initiatives, including:

• SCALE™, establishing standards for siting, energy, cost responsibility, environmental stewardship, security, and community accountability for major infrastructure projects

• PIEC™, connecting payments, identity, energy, and compute as the foundational layers of the digital economy

• FARM™, linking emerging technology investment to family land preservation, agricultural productivity, rural prosperity, and market-based innovation

• South Carolina Citizens’ Digital Bill of Rights™, proposing guardrails for privacy, identity, personal data, surveillance, transparency, and digital property rights

• Freedom Tech™, advancing innovation within constitutional protections and accountable governance

Detailed framework materials and supporting resources are available through the ASCENDSC™ resource center at https://www.sceta.io/ascendsc.

ASCENDSC is already informing SCETA’s legislative and regulatory work, including comments being prepared for submission to the South Carolina Public Service Commission on cost causation, ratepayer protection, grid reliability, load flexibility, behind-the-meter generation, and infrastructure accountability.

The framework will also be a central focus of the ASCENDSC™ Forum on September 17, 2026, in Charleston, where leaders from government, industry, academia, and the public will discuss how South Carolina can be a national model for trusted digital infrastructure and responsible technology policy.

“In a world of deepfakes, how do you know what is real? That is the problem we aim to solve.”