has a range of uses in government. It can be used to further public policy objectives, as well as assist the public to interact with the government . According to the Harvard Business Review, "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 at Harvard University 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, but it also carries risks.
Uses of AI in government
The potential uses of AI in government are wide and varied, with Deloitte 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 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
Directing requests to the appropriate area within government
Filling out forms
Assisting with searching documents
Scheduling appointments
Examples of virtual assistants or chatbots being used by government include the following:
Launched in February 2016, the Australian Taxation Office has a virtual assistant on its 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 is developing a virtual assistant called "Nadia" which takes the form of an avatar using the voice of actor Cate Blanchett. 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, however, the Australian Government is considering other platforms such as Microsoft Cortana for its further development.
The Australian Government's Department of Human Services uses virtual assistants on parts of its 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.
AI offers potential efficiencies and costs savings for the government. For example, Deloitte has estimated that automation could save US Government 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 Harvard Business Review 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.
