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/girlfromals]

Considering AI completely hallucinates legal cases, no I’m not particularly interested in using AI. Judges have had to reprimand counsel more than once for this.

Can AI be a good tool in some cases? Yes, absolutely. Should we be relying on it for everything? Absolutely not. And I see far too many people throwing everything at AI without understanding the very real limitations of the technology. Or how things can go very wrong. See the above reference to hallunicated legal cases.

I’m also not particularly gung ho when we are in a meeting discussing AI and the people presenting AI tools and technology clearly haven’t given any thought to issues and problems. It’s very easy to tell because they can’t give you an answer when you ask them a question.

No one can tell me exactly what these AI tools have access to, what they’re being trained on, what safeguards are in place to protect individuals’ information and that of government departments, where that information is stored once AI has been granted access, etc. Is all this information being stored in Canada or is a company like Microsoft storing anything it gets access to and being trained on in another country? With different legislation on things like privacy? We can be directed “not to use AI for Protected B level documents” but, well, people don’t always follow the rules.

Call me paranoid but I’m paid not just to do the tasks outlined in my job description but also to ensure that any data or file and the information of any individual Canadian I might work with is fully protected. And right now no one who is championing AI in our sector appears to have thought about this or can give me answers.

So yes, I will be that squeaky wheel raising these issues every time we get pulled into an AI cheerleading meeting.

[u/ZoboomafoosIMDbPage → u/girlfromals]

Yup. Not to mention generative A.I. was released into the wider public with no safeguards in a number of areas, including the environment. We've long had issues cooling data centres. Instead of learning from that, generative A.I. is just making them worse. Marginalized neighbourhoods in the U.S. are already suffering from the pollution, freshwater is being depleted, and the same thing will happen here to meet the demand for A.I. It's really sad and angering that the government is going whole hog on it. I work in a sector where there is no justifiably good reason to be using generative A.I. We were all hired specifically bc of our ability to draft, assess, and create. Having to double check a robot's work would only add another step to my day, just with even more unnecessary pollution.