North Carolina has long leveraged artificial intelligence, machine learning and data integration to help answer policy questions and aid in efforts to combat fraud, improve criminal justice, monitor public health outbreaks and support other initiatives.
The rapid advancement of generative AI, however, has the potential for this emerging technology to empower state employees to be innovative in ways that improve service delivery, improve public engagement and streamline operations across state government.
For example, the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services is in the early stages of modernizing its child welfare services through the Partnership and Technology Hub for North Carolina (PATH NC) project. It employs large language models to search case notes, complex policies and other documents to provide consistent answers to users involved in the child welfare system.
But generative AI – specifically publicly available tools such as ChatGPT – also brings risks and concerns about how to safely, responsibly and ethically leverage its potential while maintaining public trust.
“The public has to put a certain amount of trust in the government,” NCDIT Chief Privacy Officer Cherie Givens said. “From tax collection to medical histories, we have an enormous responsibility to protect the data that is entrusted to the state.”
For more than a year, Givens has led NCDIT’s efforts to create the North Carolina Responsible Use of Artificial Intelligence Framework. Aligned with existing state privacy laws and IT policies, it consists of principles, practices and guidance to provide a measured and consistent approach for state agencies to innovate while reducing privacy and data protection risks.
Based on the Fair Information Practice Principles – which the state adopted in 2022 to guide privacy and security practices – and feedback from government stakeholders, the AI framework incorporates standards from the National Institute of Standards and Technology, guidance from the federal government and industry best practices.
The AI framework is the first step in incorporating generative AI into state government’s technology toolset.
“In balancing the transformational benefits of leveraging generative AI to transform the way services are delivered, NCDIT is taking a multifaceted approach to help agencies and employees safely and responsibly use and harness the benefits of generative AI,” said NCDIT Chief Data Officer Christie Burris.
Other initiatives include forming an AI work group, led by both Burris and Givens, of subject matter experts from across state government. The group’s charter focuses on collaboration to produce work products that respond to the quickly evolving AI landscape and to support agencies as they journey from concept to procurement to implementation of generative AI.
NCDIT is also developing standard AI language for RFPs, contract terms and conditions as well as generative AI vendor questionnaires to provide transparency and accountability when the technology is used in vendor products.
To help employees navigate how they might use generative AI, NCDIT has posted guidance, training and other resources on its website at it.nc.gov/AI. The department is also developing comprehensive training for state employees.
“We are excited by the significant opportunity that generative AI presents to modernize our state’s government services,” Givens said. “But government has a responsibility to adopt and advance these technologies in ways that will benefit society while mitigating risk and harm to the people we serve.”