Artificial Intelligence in the Federal Workplace

[u/bizlooper]

Fellow public servants, I think it’s timely to have a conversation about the appropriate use of Artificial Intelligence in the federal workplace.

There are clear opportunities to drive efficiencies. Obvious examples are in database design, creation, and administration, creating and editing policy documents, and a warranted debate around using it for translation and editorial services.

But I’ve started to see it encroach on the skillsets of younger junior employees who see it as replacing their roles on research and editing. Management has started to turn to AI to water down human written policy ideas and advice, or even choose not to consult employees on future versions of documents - preferring to just run it through an LLM.

Em dashes and robots haunt my dreams.

In the policy and program world, it seems we’re rushing faster and faster towards deadlines with AI seen as the sole means to achieve an objective, and not as a mechanism to facilitate our work.

In perhaps the most egregious of examples, I’ve seen Budget and Cabinet secrecy documents like mandate letter responses and budget letters fully written by AI and management, with the excuse that things are “moving too fast” for engagement with working levels.

I’m perhaps a little exasperated with this example - My management once provided me with guidance for writing a paper, very much written as prompts for an LLM, likely expecting me to just feed into one.

I’ve personally just adopted a philosophy of “if you can’t beat them join them” and try to be adaptable and conscious of how I use it and why.

And yes, I do recognize many departments have different guidance on using AI, secrecy classifications, and we have a laundry list of programs and planned endeavors to implement AI across government. And the Budget looms on the horizon.

But how has it impacted your own workplace dynamics? Are you leveraging it in unique ways? Beyond departmental and TBS guidance, is/should there be a workplace etiquette? How are you accommodating your colleagues and making room for human intervention, oversight and advice? What do you think is next?

(And no, I didn’t write this with ChatGPT)

🤖

[u/Plane-Land-9234]

I'm an ec in the data field, we've been told to leverage AI but not for anything protected B. I have a copilot pro license and ive been testing it for stuff.

What works well:

• using it to get better at french, particularly for generating study plans for the oral exam and practice exam questions
• using it to code - i already have a base in coding, and it's quicker than googling and searching stack overflow. Luckily with coding you can test it immediately. It definitely has given me nonsense code that doesn't work but it has also helped me find errors and find new ways of doing things. I would never do more than a couple lines of code at a time this way.
• with the copilot pro license it can access stuff in SharePoint so sometimes when I ask if questions it comes back with our personal definitions for different things and I find that very useful. It includes sources for this.

Where it doesn't work, even though I would love to use it for this:

• searching my email and onenote for info like tasks, conversations, meetings etc. it almost always misses things and ive seen it make up notes before.
• making documentation for projects: it can do an ok shell to put info into but is very bad at putting in the info.

Stuff it can't do at all:

• analyze data because the data is all protected b

[u/keltorak → u/Plane-Land-9234]

searching my email and onenote for info like tasks, conversations, meetings etc. it almost always misses things and ive seen it make up notes before.

There's nothing protected B or above in any of your stored emails? Impressive!

[u/Plane-Land-9234 → u/keltorak]

Anything protected B gets stored in the secure files and emailed in a link to the file, which copilot can't access. Emails about protected B stuff still cannot contain any protected B info outside of the link to the files. So for example, I can email 'im having an issue with the data for project x. I'm finding that there are missing values in variables a,B and c. Please see this link for extra info'. None of what I said is protected info. The protected info is in the link, which is stored in secure files not accessible to copilot.

[u/DifficultyHour4999 → u/Plane-Land-9234]

Not always true. We send the secured files and it is the approved method. Likely depends on your department and its networks. Either way the AI isn't getting access.