Some day quickly, the e-mail response you get from a county official, the new report going to the Board of Supervisors and the county job description that catches your eye may all be generated at the very least partly utilizing artificial intelligence.
Sonoma County officers have outlined these explicit makes use of of artificial intelligence and others in a newly adopted policy meant to information use of an increasing array of AI expertise for sure sorts of authorities work.
The policy is designed to open up accredited AI instruments for departments and companies whereas navigating the various pitfalls of utilizing the expertise — the biggest concern being tips on how to safeguard confidential info.
It’s a dialogue unfolding at native governments throughout the state and the county in addition to inside organizations just like the California State Association of Counties and National Association of Counties.
“Typically, the main focus has been about balancing partaking in these applied sciences with moral issues,” stated Rachael Serrao, public affairs supervisor for the California State Affiliation of Counties, a analysis, policy and lobbying group that represents the state’s 58 counties in Sacramento.
With the passage of its policy on Tuesday, Sonoma County has joined a handful of counties which have adopted a guiding blueprint. Others embrace Santa Cruz, San Benito and San Francisco, in keeping with Serrao.
However different California counties are usually not far behind in creating AI insurance policies of their very own.
Sonoma County has been monitoring generative artificial intelligence instruments since ChatGPT — a chatbot and digital assistant created by OpenAI — launched in 2022, stated Dan Fruchey, Sonoma County’s info programs director.
Generative AI can create content material, together with textual content, photos, audio or video, when prompted by a consumer, in keeping with the county’s definition.
“We knew this was one thing actually large on the market that we had to concentrate to,” stated Fruchey, who is also a member of CSAC’s Artificial Intelligence Committee and has labored with the Nationwide Affiliation of Counties’ AI exploratory committee.
Underneath the county’s policy, departments and companies could use accredited instruments for duties together with writing emails, studies, insurance policies and job descriptions, finishing spreadsheet calculations and information evaluation and creating or debugging code.
However these permitted makes use of include large caveats — customers should not enter any confidential info or info that’s too particular to the county, reminiscent of the main points of a authorized case, and customers should assessment and fact-check any AI-generated info.
“There may be dangers in utilizing this expertise, together with uncertainty about possession of the AI-created content material and safety and privateness issues with inputting proprietary or confidential details about an worker, shopper, operations, and so forth. when interacting with the AI expertise,” the newly adopted doc reads. “Moreover, the accuracy of the content material created by these applied sciences can’t be relied upon, as the data could also be outdated, protected, deceptive or fabricated.”
The policy additionally restricts departments from utilizing accredited AI to make choices reminiscent of reviewing or deciding on new hires or workers for promotion, reviewing proposals from potential distributors and figuring out well being care and advantages.
The principle driver behind native governments’ curiosity in AI is effectivity.
“It is an enormous timesaving device to go forward and use AI within the applicable context,” Fruchey stated. “So there are issues that may usually take you minutes and even hours to go forward and produce and (AI) can go forward and produce in seconds.”
Providing an instance, Fruchey pointed to a examine he’s engaged on about county workers’ use of bodily telephones. After stripping out info particular to Sonoma County, he used ChatGPT to research the “anonymized” information for any tendencies.
“It did all of it in just some minutes. It could have taken me hours to undergo all that,” Fruchey stated.
Past defending delicate info, one other problem in harnessing AI expertise for presidency work is writing policy that can preserve tempo with AI’s evolution and with any laws being debated on the state degree.
“The first problem is that the expertise’s panorama and implications are consistently evolving, requiring insurance policies which might be versatile and adaptable,” Serrao stated in an electronic mail. “Moreover, the surge of state laws this 12 months has launched an additional layer of complexity.”
Sonoma County’s reply to that problem was to keep away from baking particular AI instruments into the policy itself. As a substitute, the policy refers to a separate checklist of accredited instruments and the way they can be utilized. That expertise suite consists of ChatGPT, OnePlan, Microsoft Groups and Microsoft Azure.
Departments enthusiastic about utilizing a device not on the checklist can submit the expertise for a assessment each by the data programs division and the County Counsel’s Workplace. The county is at the moment reviewing Microsoft CoPilot, one other generative AI device.
The county has dominated out sure instruments, at the very least for now, together with digital assistants, transcription companies and a set of instruments known as Meetingbox, which is an occasion administration software program, Fruchey stated.
These instruments weren’t appropriate with the county’s have to safeguard confidential info, Fruchey stated. However the county could revisit them because the expertise evolves.
“We’re making an attempt to go forward and dip our toes into the pool and be sure that what we’re doing is efficient and will result in different issues which might be invaluable and supportable for the longer term,” Fruchey stated.
You possibly can attain Employees Author Emma Murphy at 707-521-5228 or emma.murphy@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @MurphReports.