TRAVERSE CITY — “The genie is out of the bottle.”
That’s how some officials in the National Association of Counties describe the implementation of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) and its use in local government operations across the country.
In recent years, AI technology has been a key consideration for government staff and elected officials, including commissioners in Grand Traverse County.
County commissioners and Information Technology Director Cliff DuPuy recently discussed the use of AI in local government – the most recent implementation of which is AI use for non-emergency calls in Central Dispatch. It’s one of the first ways the technology is being used throughout the county.
County Administrator Nate Alger told commissioners that he and DuPuy have already had several discussions about AI’s use and how the county should approach a policy.
“Artificial intelligence is taking off, making itself known throughout the enterprise,” Dupuy told commissioners. “I’ve suggested that we create a center of excellence for AI, and that the board create a policy for implementation of AI in the county.”
DuPuy noted that most AI applications operate with a “large language model” in the backend of the program and, depending on which application is being used, results will vary depending on the sources compiled.
For instance, AI-powered searches like Perplexity may look at what he called “deep-state websites,” a term that describes real or imagined secret networks of power. But the more recognizable and widely-used model, ChatGPT, would be more presentational, DuPuy said.
“I can foresee other departments actually looking at increasing that opportunity,” he said about AI use. “It’s really critical that, I think, this board get ahead of that.”
DuPuy said a formal policy would help the IT department inform the county about which applications, established or new, can be used and which ones should be avoided.
“One of the things you have to be very careful of, actually, is AI will hallucinate so it will give you information that’s incorrect,” DuPuy said. “So that’s why I feel it’s really critical for this county to move forward that we have a policy in place that we vet these applications before we just bring them to you for approval.”
County Chair Scott Sieffert said his intention was to get an ad hoc committee assembled and put the topic on a future board agenda.
District 5 Commissioner Rob Hentschel noted that a basic policy was discussed after ChatGPT 3.5 was released in late 2022.
Hentschel questioned if the policy was officially enacted, which required that any county document generated with AI must include a disclaimer.
DuPuy also told commissioners a funding request for a center of excellence would support the county’s AI implementation, but that proposal won’t be considered until next year’s budgeting process.
“I would propose that funding request be looked at in 2027,” DuPuy said. “We can slow-walk it this first year. … I believe in 2027 we should look at significant investment.”
District 4 Commissioner Fern Spence said later, in an interview with the Record-Eagle, that AI use within county operations could be a useful tool – especially when their work requires summaries of large document files or budgetary reports.
“My biggest concerns would be fact-checking,” Spence said. “If we’re going to be using AI, we need to be very vigilant and detail-oriented and check data because AI can make errors. I think that’s a really important part of any kind of policy that we could potentially have.”
Board Vice Chair TJ Andrews echoed that concern, stating in an email that she hoped the county would consider a comprehensive policy.
“My key points in a policy would reflect my biggest concerns as we integrate AI systems into county services: security, transparency, accuracy, and efficiency,” Andrews said.
“Security includes protecting private information. Transparency means disclosing publicly when, how and why AI is being used. Accuracy means counteracting the notorious inaccuracies associated with AI generated outputs … . That last point raises a related concern of efficiency. … it may reduce rather than increase efficient and cost-effective delivery of county services, which is obviously a big concern.”
Spence agreed that efficiency could be helped or hindered, depending on the county policy’s approach.
“It is a really good, useful, powerful tool, but it has limitations and we really need to be respectful of that – and I think that we all are on the commission,” Spence said. “Out of the nine of us (commissioners), we understand that we have to do our checks and balances.”
The Michigan Association of Counties is set to host its annual conference at the Grand Traverse Resort in Acme from Sept. 30 to Oct. 2. The conference is expected to feature 10 policy workshops for attendees, including a session on the use of AI to help build local economies and current challenges in mental health services across the state.
Meanwhile, the national association, serving nearly 38,000 elected county officials and more than 3 million county employees, formed a 16-member Artificial Intelligence Exploratory Committee in the spring of 2023.
That committee, co-chaired by Texas Judge Andy Brown and Florida Mayor Gregg Weiss, was tasked with examining policies, best practices and potential consequences of AI use within local government. Their findings were compiled into a resource in December 2024 to aid county officials in the process of policy-making and smart implementation, given the prevalence of AI in everyday use.
“AI can play an important role in achieving our priorities in counties nationwide,” Judge Brown said in 2023 when the committee was formed.
His co-chair agreed, saying counties could find effective uses in making data-driven decisions while adhering to ethical use standards.
“This initiative ensures AI is used ethically, maintaining the principles of fairness, transparency and accountability,” Weiss said in the press release. “I’m confident that this forward-thinking step will foster a new era of efficiency and effectiveness in our government operations.”
TECH TOOLKIT
The committee crafted the AI County Compass and presented it at their annual conference last December, offering a comprehensive toolkit for local governments that are considering GenAI use.
With several AI models already at the public’s fingertips, from basic Google searches to generative tasks that can create images and videos, the toolkit aims to provide parameters for county governments looking to incorporate AI in their day-to-day operations.
The report explains differences between AI and GenAI.
While artificial intelligence has been around for years, serving as a digital assistant of sorts, transcribing apps, customer service chatbots and smart devices, generative AI is a newer technology that can produce creative content, when prompted, to form original text documents, images and videos.
The committee delegated workgroups to investigate four key elements of using GenAI: responsible applications, models for potential policies, recommendations for establishing an ethical framework and ways that individual counties can prepare and train their workforce.
National Association of Counties Chief Information Officer Rita D. Reynolds oversees the internal technology operations and leads programs and initiatives for counties.
Reynolds presented the committee’s information on GenAI use at the October 2023 Michigan Association of Counties annual conference in Kalamazoo. I
n her presentation, she highlighted key challenges facing counties in Michigan and how AI could play a role, ranging from broadband availability and accessibility, cyber attacks, workforce shortages to continued budgetary constraints.
Among the benefits associated with county governments incorporating GenAI use, the top factors included enhanced productivity and cost savings.
Reynolds also highlighted that service deliveries would improve and operations would be streamlined by the implementation. Inclusivity would improve through the ability to bridging multilingual gaps.
But the relatively new technology poses its own set of challenges for local governments.
Implementing the use of GenAI in local government operations would require fact-checking for all data-driven content and clear policies in place to ensure compliance, the committee indicated.
Counties would have to manage copyright issues should the content not cite original sourcing, as well as education about GenAI’s specific role in local government to mitigate fears of job displacement and AI misuse, it said.
The committee also stressed transparency, noting that a clear disclaimer should be included on all content generated through the use of AI. Training staff to handle the use of the technology would also require a significant effort and a careful approach.