IT IS ACCEPTABLE for draft versions of reports produced by the public service to be created by artificial intelligence, say new guidelines released today.

The Department of Public Expenditure and Public Service Reform has published new guidelines setting out what it considers to be “responsible use of AI in the public service”.

The public service includes civil servants working in government departments and State agencies as well as wider public sector workers in areas like education, healthcare and the justice system.

The guidelines outline the type of tasks that AI can be used to support work in the public service.

These include using AI to provide chatbots on government websites, language translation, algorithms for decision-making, policy analysis, and content generation, such as text, images, audio or video.

The guidelines list examples of the type of content that AI can be used to generate in the public service, including analysing lengthy documents and generating summaries or draft versions of reports containing the most important data points and insights.

Other acceptable examples it provides are the automatic generation of language translations of government publications and the creation videos or infographics for public awareness campaigns.

AI can also be used in the public service for identifying and categorising data, detecting and monitoring patterns, and forecasting future trends, the guidelines detail.

Pros and cons

The guidelines say that AI has ”the potential to transform Irish Public Services, making them more efficient, fair, and responsive”.

Currently, St. Vincent’s University Hospital is exploring the potential for AI to assist with performing heart ultrasound scans, which could help to reduce waiting times for patients.

The Department of Agriculture is developing an AI-supported solution to detect errors in grant applications that could reduce processing times for applications.

“AI offers immense possibilities to improve the provision of public services,” said Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Jack Chambers.

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Minister of State for AI Niamh Smyth added that AI can be used for “unlocking productivity, addressing social challenges and delivering enhanced services”.

However, the guidelines also identify several potential risks associated with using AI in public services.

One of the risks is AI systems could reinforce biases in data, leading to unintended discrimination.

There’s also a risk that complex algorithms can make AI-driven decisions difficult to understand, which in turn could affect public trust.

And automated AI systems can lack flexibility, risking a loss of the “human touch” in public services.