Matt Hietpas, technology services director, said Shawano County needs to review all of its tech services policies, as many have not been updated for several years.
“It’s time to review everything,” he said. “This includes things like disaster recovery, computer use and AI.”
With AI becoming more prevalent, Hietpas and a few others in the county are taking part in a pilot program with GovAI, an artificial intelligence platform with unique security features geared toward government users.
The pilot program will expire at the end of June, and the county will then decide whether to continue with it, use a different AI program or not use any at all.
In the meantime, Hietpas said he is considering a policy that would ban the use of AI programs other than GovAI on county devices, including computers, tablets and phones.
“We need to be sensitive to anything that gets uploaded,” he said. “We can use AI for comparing documents or ordinances and data management, but we need to be careful with things like human resources and law enforcement. We don’t want to jeopardize any private or confidential information.”
The concern is that anything uploaded to these other platforms could allow someone to infiltrate county systems.
The GovAI platform has a cost of $9,500 for six months. Hietpas said one of the issues to study is whether those who use the program save at least $9,500 in time and other costs.
The GovAI cost is based on the county’s population, not how many people use it or how often it is accessed.
“We might look at another platform where we pay per user,” he said. “Those platforms also have government security features, but they are more business-related.”
Hietpas said AI can benefit the public through interactions such as calls to government offices and chatboxes on the website, while also benefiting employees through the use of data gathering, data management, analytics, resource planning, real time data-driven insights and drafting documents.
Hietpas said a sheriff’s deputy can use AI to review body camera and dash camera footage to create incident reports.
All AI-generated information still needs to be reviewed by individuals for accuracy.
kpasson@newmedia-wi.com
