The Only Constant is Change - The Future of AI in Government

The Only Constant is Change

As public servants, I believe it is vital for us to keep an eye on the world as it supports our ability to anticipate and react to oncoming threats and opportunities. However, more now than ever before, this level of intuition requires constant vigilance as the world swirls around us. In fact, there is so much information, it is difficult to determine what to pay attention to and what is noise on a daily basis. Well... there is an app for that, or at the very least a set of tools that can be used to get a grip on the chaos around us.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is not exactly a new concept but has taken a huge leap in the last few years. With Chat-GPT leading the way, there seems to be a public interest in using this in our day-to-day lives. But what is AI and what are the ways it can help the public sector? This, like many questions out there, is dependent on your jurisdiction, organization, and even comfort level with these tools; however, I will go on to describe how I use it and where I have found it beneficial.

For myself, AI use in government takes a certain level of curiosity and (dare I say it), risk. AI platforms are quickly becoming more accurate and tailored to the needs of public servants but with any change comes uncertainty. Within my government, we are testing the use of Copilot as it integrates well into our computer systems and Elicit to generate literature reviews in seconds. These programs are truly incredible and it seems like every other week there is a new bell and/or whistle to check out. However, hallucinations, fear of data security, and time required to learn how to use them, restrict their effectiveness.

Unlike other fads that have come and gone, I truly believe AI is here to stay in some way, shape, or form. The key is truly figuring out ways that it can improve your life, effectiveness, and efficiency on a daily basis. My recommendation is for government employees to start trying these tools in bite-sized chunks. You certainly don't have to boil the ocean but by getting your feet wet, there is an opportunity to see how these powerful tools can help you in your day-to-day. And once you do, please share with this community as I think we can all learn how to do things better together.

As a first step, I thought I would share a few things that I use these programs for and hope that you will take me up on the offer:

1. Copilot 365 - transcription and meeting recaps - My favourite tool is to use Copilot to generate meeting minutes and action items. My team has limited administrative support and instead of having a team member jot down every key point, removing them from contributing, I use AI to serve this purpose. By turning on transcription in MS Teams, I am able to generate these meeting minutes almost in real time and share with the meeting attendees. This allows for people to review them with the meeting still in their head and improve the minutes/action items. Amazing tool for those of us hosting/attending meetings regularly.

2. Elicit AI - reference generator and synthesizer - I mentioned to a colleague of mine the other day that if Elicit existed when I did my Masters degree, I would have likely continued on to a PhD. Elicit is a tremendous way of finding and compiling evidence quickly. Additionally, even the free version provides a short summary of the topic based on the references it finds. This is a huge benefit when asked for the current state of something in a meeting or as a starting place for a literature review. Like Copilot, the outputs needs to be double-checked for accuracy but at the very least, you have a starting place.

3. Copilot - artistic expression - I am by no means an artist. I struggle to colour within the lines. However, with Copilot (and other AI tools), I have hope. Copilot has the ability to generate images based on my less than creative ideas and tailor them to my specific needs. I use this a lot with presentations as it is able to create an image that perfectly represents my point. You want a duck wearing tap shoes? AI can do that. You want Einstein walking on a tightrope? AI can do that. But you know what AI struggles with... words and individual faces. For some reason, it is tricky to get "human" looking faces that aren't out of a horror movie or words that I am typing in to show up in the order I typed them. Not a deal breaker but just a warning to those trying to make an inspirational poster with their own face on it... likely not going to go well at first.