Artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence—perceiving, synthesizing, and inferring information—demonstrated by machines, as opposed to intelligence displayed by animals and humans. Example tasks in which this is done include speech re ...

(AI) has a range of uses in

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is a ...

. It can be used to further

public policy Public policy is an institutionalized proposal or a decided set of elements like laws, regulations, guidelines, and actions to solve or address relevant and real-world problems, guided by a conception and often implemented by programs. Public p ...

objectives (in areas such as emergency services, health and welfare), as well as assist the public to interact with the government (through the use of

virtual assistant An intelligent virtual assistant (IVA) or intelligent personal assistant (IPA) is a software agent that can perform tasks or services for an individual based on commands or questions. The term "chatbot" is sometimes used to refer to virtual ...

s, for example). According to the

Harvard Business Review ''Harvard Business Review'' (''HBR'') is a general management magazine published by Harvard Business Publishing, a wholly owned subsidiary of Harvard University. ''HBR'' is published six times a year and is headquartered in Brighton, Ma ...

, "Applications of artificial intelligence to the public sector are broad and growing, with early experiments taking place around the world." Hila Mehr from the

Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, formerly known as the Ash Institute, was established in 2003 and is part of the Harvard Kennedy School at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in the United States. The Center’s mis ...

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

notes that AI in government is not new, with postal services using machine methods in the late 1990s to recognise handwriting on envelopes to automatically route letters. The use of AI in government comes with significant benefits, including efficiencies resulting in cost savings (for instance by reducing the number of front office staff), and reducing the opportunities for corruption. However, it also carries risks.

Uses of AI in government

The potential uses of AI in government are wide and varied, with

Deloitte Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited (), commonly referred to as Deloitte, is an international professional services network headquartered in London, England. Deloitte is the largest professional services network by revenue and number of profession ...

considering that "Cognitive technologies could eventually revolutionize every facet of government operations". Mehr suggests that six types of government problems are appropriate for AI applications: # Resource allocation - such as where administrative support is required to complete tasks more quickly. # Large datasets - where these are too large for employees to work efficiently and multiple datasets could be combined to provide greater insights. # Experts shortage - including where basic questions could be answered and niche issues can be learned. # Predictable scenario - historical data makes the situation predictable. # Procedural - repetitive tasks where inputs or outputs have a binary answer. # Diverse data - where data takes a variety of forms (such as visual and linguistic) and needs to be summarised regularly. Meher states that "While applications of AI in government work have not kept pace with the rapid expansion of AI in the private sector, the potential use cases in the public sector mirror common applications in the private sector." Potential and actual uses of AI in government can be divided into three broad categories: those that contribute to public policy objectives; those that assist public interactions with the government; and other uses.

Contributing to public policy objectives

There are a range of examples of where AI can contribute to public policy objectives. These include: * Receiving benefits at job loss, retirement, bereavement and child birth almost immediately, in an automated way (thus without requiring any actions from citizens at all) *Social insurance service provision * Classifying emergency calls based on their urgency (like the system used by the

Cincinnati Fire Department The Cincinnati Fire Department provides fire protection and emergency medical services for Cincinnati, Ohio. The department, which was established on April 1, 1853, was the first fully paid and professional fire department in the United States. A ...

in the United States) * Detecting and preventing the spread of diseases * Assisting public servants in making welfare payments and immigration decisions * Adjudicating bail hearings * Triaging health care cases * Monitoring social media for public feedback on policies * Monitoring social media to identify emergency situations * Identifying fraudulent benefits claims * Predicting a crime and recommending optimal police presence * Predicting traffic congestion and car accidents * Anticipating road maintenance requirements * Identifying breaches of health regulations * Providing personalised education to students * Marking exam papers * Assisting with defence and national security (see and respectively). * Making symptom based health

Chatbot A chatbot or chatterbot is a Software agent, software application used to conduct an on-line chat conversation via text or Speech synthesis, text-to-speech, in lieu of providing direct contact with a live human agent. Designed to convincingly si ...

AI Vaid for diagnosis

Assisting public interactions with government

AI can be used to assist members of the public to interact with government and access government services, for example by: * Answering questions using

s or

chatbot A chatbot or chatterbot is a Software agent, software application used to conduct an on-line chat conversation via text or Speech synthesis, text-to-speech, in lieu of providing direct contact with a live human agent. Designed to convincingly si ...

s (see below) * Directing requests to the appropriate area within government * Filling out forms * Assisting with searching documents (e.g.

IP Australia IP Australia is an agency of the Department of Industry, Innovation and Science. IP Australia administers intellectual property rights and legislation relating to patents, trade marks, registered designs and plant breeder's rights in Australia. ...

’s trade mark search) * Scheduling appointments Examples of virtual assistants or chatbots being used by government include the following: * Launched in February 2016, the

Australian Taxation Office The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) is an Australian statutory agency and the principal revenue collection body for the Australian Government. The ATO has responsibility for administering the Australian federal taxation system, superannuatio ...

has a virtual assistant on it
website
called "Alex". As at 30 June 2017, Alex could respond to more than 500 questions, had engaged in 1.5 million conversations and resolved over 81% of enquiries at first contact. * Australia's

National Disability Insurance Scheme The National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) is a scheme of the Australian Government that funds costs associated with disability. The scheme was legislated in 2013 and went into full operation in 2020. The scheme is administered by the Na ...

(NDIS) is developing a virtual assistant called "Nadia" which takes the form of an

avatar Avatar (, ; ), is a concept within Hinduism that in Sanskrit literally means "descent". It signifies the material appearance or incarnation of a powerful deity, goddess or spirit on Earth. The relative verb to "alight, to make one's appearanc ...

using the voice of actor

Cate Blanchett Catherine Elise Blanchett (; born 14 May 1969) is an Australian actor. Regarded as one of the finest performers of her generation, she is known for her versatile work across independent films, blockbusters, and the stage. She has received nu ...

. Nadia is intended to assist users of the NDIS to navigate the service. Costing some $4.5 million, the project has been postponed following a number of issues. Nadia was developed using

IBM Watson IBM Watson is a question-answering computer system capable of answering questions posed in natural language, developed in IBM's DeepQA project by a research team led by principal investigator David Ferrucci. Watson was named after IBM's founder ...

, however, the

Australian Government The Australian Government, also known as the Commonwealth Government, is the national government of Australia, a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy. Like other Westminster-style systems of government, the Australian Government i ...

is considering other platforms such as

Microsoft Cortana Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washin ...

for its further development. * The Australian Government's Department of Human Services uses virtual assistants on parts of it
website
to answer questions and encourage users to stay in the digital channel. As at December 2018, a virtual assistant called "Sam" could answer general questions about family, job seeker and student payments and related information. The department also introduced an internally-facing virtual assistant called "MelissHR" to make it easier for departmental staff to access human resources information. * Estonia is building a virtual assistant which will guide citizens through any interactions they have with the government. Automated and proactive services "push" services to citizens at key events of their lives (including births, bereavements, unemployment, ...). One example is the automated registering of babies when they are born.

Other uses

Other uses of AI in government include: *

Translation Translation is the communication of the Meaning (linguistic), meaning of a #Source and target languages, source-language text by means of an Dynamic and formal equivalence, equivalent #Source and target languages, target-language text. The ...

* Language interpretation pioneered by the

European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the executive of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with 27 members of the Commission (informally known as "Commissioners") headed by a President. It includes an administrative body o ...

's Directorate General for Interpretation and

Florika Fink-Hooijer Florika Fink-Hooijer is a European civil servant at the European Commission. She leads the Directorate General for the Environment, which holds large responsibilities under the European Green Deal. She joined the European Commission in 1990 a ...

. * Drafting documents

Potential benefits

AI offers potential efficiencies and costs savings for the government. For example,

has estimated that automation could save

US Government The federal government of the United States (U.S. federal government or U.S. government) is the national government of the United States, a federal republic located primarily in North America, composed of 50 states, a city within a feder ...

employees between 96.7 million to 1.2 billion hours a year, resulting in potential savings of between $3.3 billion to $41.1 billion a year. The

has stated that while this may lead a government to reduce employee numbers, "Governments could instead choose to invest in the quality of its services. They can re-employ workers’ time towards more rewarding work that requires lateral thinking, empathy, and creativity — all things at which humans continue to outperform even the most sophisticated AI program."

Potential risks

Potential risks associated with the use of AI in government include AI becoming susceptible to bias, a lack of transparency in how an AI application may make decisions, and the accountability for any such decisions. US

Department of Homeland Security The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is the U.S. federal executive department responsible for public security, roughly comparable to the interior or home ministries of other countries. Its stated missions involve anti-terr ...

has employed the software ATLAS, which run on Amazon Cloud. It scanned more than 16.5 million of records of naturalized Americans and flagged approximately 124.000 of them for manual annalysis and review by

USCIS U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is an agency of the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that administers the country's naturalization and immigration system. It is a successor to the Immigration and Naturaliza ...

officers regarding

denaturalization Denaturalization is the loss of citizenship against the will of the person concerned. Denaturalization is often applied to ethnic minorities and political dissidents. Denaturalization can be a penalty for actions considered criminal by the stat ...

. Some of the scanned data came from

Terrorist Screening Database The Terrorist Screening Database (TSDB) is the central terrorist watchlist consolidated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Terrorist Screening Center and used by multiple agencies to compile their specific watchlists and for screening. The l ...

and

National Crime Information Center The National Crime Information Center (NCIC) is the United States' central database for tracking crime-related information. The NCIC has been an information sharing tool since 1967. It is maintained by the Criminal Justice Information Services Di ...

. The algorithm and the criteria for the algorithm were secret. Amazon faced protests from its own employees and activists for the anti-migrant collaboration with authorities. The scandal was revealed through efforts of

Open Society Justice Initiative Open Society Foundations (OSF), formerly the Open Society Institute, is a grantmaking network founded and chaired by business magnate George Soros. Open Society Foundations financially supports civil society groups around the world, with a sta ...

and Muslim Advocates, a sister organization of National Association of Muslim Lawyers. AI in governance and the economic world can make the market more difficult for companies to keep up with the increases in technology. Large U.S. companies like Apple and Google are able to dominate the market with their latest and most advanced technologies. This gives them an unfair advantage over companies that do not have the means of advancing as far in the digital technology fields with AI.

Uses of AI in government

Contributing to public policy objectives

Assisting public interactions with government

Other uses

Potential benefits

Potential risks

See also

References

Further reading