Date:
25 February 2020
Author:
Salsa Digital

AI helping Ohio review its regulations

The state of Ohio in the US recently announced a new initiative that will use artificial intelligence (AI) to review the state’s laws and regulations. It’s a big task, with the number of regulations recently estimated at 240,000, covering the past 200 years.

Ohio state employees will load the state’s laws and regulations into the software. The AI-driven software will then review the regulations and group them together on like terms. As it goes along, the software will improve, becoming more sophisticated. The ultimate goal is to streamline state regulations and identify all the redundants ones, with proposed changes expected to be ready before June.

Given the size of the undertaking, using AI to review the regulations will significantly reduce the amount of time required for this task.

The AI initiative brings together two Ohio projects — the Common Sense InitiativeExternal Link that’s trying to cut government red tape and InnovateOhioExternal Link , which is focused on using technology within Ohio’s government.

AI in government

Artificial intelligence is being used in a variety of ways in the public sector and it’s expected this trend will continue. For example, as part of this Digital Transformation in Government series, we’ve looked at:

AI use in government is also getting media coverage, such as this piece from last year on AI being used to detect faulty street signsExternal Link .

AI ethics and regulating AI

As its use around the world continues to grow, governments are also focused on AI ethics and regulation. Here in Australia, last year the the CSIRO’s Data61External Link and the Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources released the AI Ethics Framework discussion paperExternal Link , which takes a deep dive into AI.

Salsa Digital’s take

Salsa is always keen to apply innovative methods and new and emerging tech to our project delivery. Use cases like Ohio’s continue to bring innovative tech such as AI into the mainstream. While ethical questions still need to be addressed, the potential of AI to digitally transform government will continue to grow.

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