Some U.S. government agencies are testing out AI to help fulfill public records requests

Open government and civil rights advocates warn that using AI to answer Freedom of Information Act requests may create new problems.

By Lewis Kamb, NBC News, Aug. 1, 2023

A few federal agencies have started to use sophisticated artificial intelligence tools to help deal with immense caseloads of Freedom of Information Act requests, but some transparency advocates warn that the government needs additional safeguards before more widely deploying the technology.

At least three agencies — the State Department, the Justice Department and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — have tried out or are now testing machine-learning models and algorithms to help search for information in repositories holding billions of government records, federal officials confirmed to NBC News in recent interviews.

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