FOIA News: Generative AI raises questions about federal records laws

Generative AI could raise questions for federal records laws

A clause in a DHS agreement with OpenAI opens the door to some debate on transparency issues.

By Rebecca Heilweil, FEDSCOOP, Apr. 22, 2024

The Department of Homeland Security has been eager to experiment with generative artificial intelligence, raising questions about what aspects of interactions with those tools might be subject to public records laws. 

In March, the agency announced several initiatives that aim to use the technology, including a pilot project that the Federal Emergency Management Agency will deploy to address hazard mitigation planning, and a training project involving U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services staff. Last November, the agency released a memo meant to guide the agency’s use of the technology. A month later, Eric Hysen, the department’s chief information officer and chief AI officer, told FedScoop that there’s been “good interest” in using generative AI within the agency. 

But the agency’s provisional approval of a few generative AI products — which include ChatGPT, Bing Chat, Claude 2, DALL-E2, and Grammarly, per a privacy impact assessment — call for closer examination in regard to federal transparency. Specifically, an amendment to OpenAI’s terms of service uploaded to the DHS website established that outputs from the model are considered federal records, along with referencing freedom of information laws. 

Read more here.

Jobs, jobs, jobs: Weekly report 4/22/24

Federal positions closing in the next 10 days

Gov’t Info. Specialist, U.S. Int’l Trade Comm’n, GS 12-13, Washington, D.C., closes 4/22/24.

Gov’t Info. Specialist, Dep’t of Housing & Urban Dev., GS 13, Washington, D.C., closes 4/22/24.

Gov’t Info. Specialist, Dep’t of Housing & Urban Dev., GS 13, Washington, D.C., closes 4/22/24 (non-public).

Sup. Gov. Info. Specialist, Dep’t of Housing & Urban Dev., GS 14, remote, closes 4/22/24 or first 250 applications.

Sup. Gov. Info. Specialist, Dep’t of Housing & Urban Dev., GS 14, remote, closes 4/22/24 or first 250 applications (non-public)

Attorney Adviser Int’l, Dep’t of State, GS 12-13, Washington, D.C., closes 4/22/24.

Attorney Advisor Int’l, Dep’t of State, GS 14-15, Washington, D.C., closes 4/22/24.

Sup. Gov’t Info. Specialist, U.S. Agency for Int’l. Dev, GS 14, Washington, D.C., closes 4/24/24 (non-public).

Sup. Gov’t Info. Specialist, Dep’t of Justice/ATF, GS 14, Washington, D.C., closes 4/24/24 (non-public).

Gov’t Info. Specialist, Envtl. Prot. Agency, GS 9-11, Washington, D.C., closes 4/24/24.

Gov’t Info. Specialist, Dep’t of Housing & Urban Dev., GS 9-12, Washington, D.C., closes 4/25/24.

Gov’t Info. Specialist, Dep’t of Housing & Urban Dev., GS 9-12, Washington, D.C., closes 4/25/24 (non-public).

Sup. Gov’t Info. Specialist, Dep’t of Homeland Sec./FEMA, GS 14, Washington, D.C., closes 4/25/24 (non-public).

Gov’t Info. Specialist, Dep’t of the Army/Nat’l Guard, GS 9, Colchester, VT, closes 4/26/24.

Sup. Atty-Advisor, Dep’t of Justice/NSD, GS 15, Washington, D.C., closes 4/26/24.

Gov’t Info. Specialist, Dep’t of the Air Force, GS 13, Quantico, VA, closes 4/26/24 (non-public).

Gov’t Info. Specialist, Dep’t of Def., DLA, GS 9-11, multiple locations, closes 4/28/24 (non-public).

FOIA News: CFO Council meeting on Apr. 17

As we reported in our March roundup, the Chief FOIA Officers Council will meet on Wednesday, April 17, 2024. The agenda is here and the presentation slides are here. See the livestream on NARA’s YouTube channel starting at 10am.

FOIA News: IRS improves FOIA performance, finds TIGTA audit

On April 11, 2024, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration published an audit that was performed to determine whether the Internal Revenue Service properly withheld records pursuant to Exemption 7 or section 6103 of the Internal Revenue Code between October 1, 2022, and March 31, 2023. TIGTA found that the IRS properly invoked Exemption 7 in 98 of 99 requests sampled. TIGTA found no errors in 10 requests reviewed involving section 6103.

See the entire report here.

Jobs, jobs, jobs: Weekly report 4/15/24

Federal positions closing in the next 10 days

Gov’t Info. Specialist, Dep’t of Energy/WAPA, GS 12-13, various locations, closes 4/15/24.

Gov’t Info. Specialist, Dep’t of Energy/WAPA, GS 12-13, various locations, closes 4/15/24 (non-public).

Sup. Gov’t Info. Specialist, DHS/FEMA, GS 14, Washington, D.C., closes 4/15/24 or first 100 applications.

Sup. Gov’t Info. Specialist, DHS/FEMA, GS 14, Washington, D.C., closes 4/15/24 or first 100 applications (non-public).

Gov’t Info. Specialist, Dep’t of Def./WHS, GS 9-13, Alexandria, VA, closes 4/16/24 (non-public).

Archivist, Nat’l Archives & Records Admin., GS 12-13, College Park, MD, closes 4/17/24 (non-public).

Gov’t Info. Specialist, Dep’t of the Air Force, GS 11, El Segundo, CA, closes 4/18/24 (non-public).

Attorney Advisor, Dep’t of Justice/OIP, GS 12-15, Washington, D.C., closes 4/18/24.

Gov’t Info. Specialist, U.S. Int’l Trade Comm’n, GS 12-13, Washington, D.C., closes 4/22/24.

Gov’t Info. Specialist, Dep’t of Housing & Urban Dev., GS 13, Washington, D.C., closes 4/22/24.

Gov’t Info. Specialist, Dep’t of Housing & Urban Dev., GS 13, Washington, D.C., closes 4/22/24 (non-public).

Sup. Gov. Info. Specialist, Dep’t of Housing & Urban Dev., GS 14, remote, closes 4/22/24 or first 250 applications.

Sup. Gov. Info. Specialist, Dep’t of Housing & Urban Dev., GS 14, remote, closes 4/22/24 or first 250 applications (non-public)

Attorney Adviser Int’l, Dep’t of State, GS 12-13, Washington, D.C., closes 4/22/24.

Attorney Advisor Int’l, Dep’t of State, GS 14-15, Washington, D.C., closes 4/22/24.

Sup. Gov’t Info. Specialist, U.S. Agency for Int’l. Dev, GS 14, Washington, D.C., closes 4/24/24 (non-public).

Sup. Gov’t Info. Specialist, Dep’t of Justice/ATF, GS 14, Washington, D.C., closes 4/24/24 (non-public).

Gov’t Info. Specialist, Dep’t of Housing & Urban Dev., GS 9-12, Washington, D.C., closes 4/25/24.

Gov’t Info. Specialist, Dep’t of Housing & Urban Dev., GS 9-12, Washington, D.C., closes 4/25/24 (non-public).

Sup. Gov’t Info. Specialist, Dep’t of Homeland Sec./FEMA, GS 14, Washington, D.C., closes 4/25/24 (non-public).

Federal positions closing on or after 4/26/24

Gov’t Info. Specialist, Dep’t of the Army/Nat’l Guard, GS 9, Colchester, VT, closes 4/26/24.

Court opinions issued Apr. 10, 2024

Malone v. USPTO (E.D. Va.) -- ruling that: (1) plaintiff could not in litigation expand scope of his original request, which sought certain information about patent cases in which expanded panels were used or in which panels were advised by agency personnel to change their decisions; (2) plaintiff’s request would impermissibly require the agency to conduct research and create new records; and (3) agency was required to process one document concerning expanded panels that was partially responsive to plaintiff’s request.

Col. Wild Pub. Lands v. U.S. Forest Serv. (D.D.C.) -- dismissing case as moot, except with respect to matters relating to attorney’s fees and costs, because agency complied with court’s earlier decision to release certain records to plaintiff; refusing to consider plaintiff’s belated argument that agency has a “systemic policy of delaying the release of records”; and rejecting plaintiff’s various protests about how agency released records, remarking that “[b]y continuing to litigate, it seems [plaintiff] is having a hard time accepting ‘yes’ for an answer.”

Summaries of all published opinions issued in 2024 are available here. Earlier opinions are available here.

FOIA News: Peace Corps finalizes amendments to regulations

The Peace Corps published a final rule in the Federal Register on April 11, 2024, which reflect amendments to the agency’s FOIA regulations. The agency considered public comments, adopting several and rejecting others. The amendments are effective May 13, 2024.

FOIA News: D.C. Circuit argument on Tuesday, April 9

As we noted in our most recent monthly roundup, the D.C. Circuit will hear argument in the FOIA case in Connell v. CIA on April 9, 2024. The ACLU, which is representing the appellant, has issued a press release about the case. A live audio stream is available here.

Jobs, jobs, jobs: Weekly report, 4/8/24

Federal positions closing in the next 10 days

Gov’t Info Specialist, Dep’t of Labor/MSHA, GS 13, Arlington, VA, closes 4/8/24.

Gov’t Info Specialist, Dep’t of Labor/MSHA, GS 13, Arlington, VA, closes 4/8/24 (non-public).

Sup. Gov’t Info Specialist, Dep’t of Def./DCSA, GS 14, Boyers, PA, closes 4/8/24 (non-public).

Gov’t Info Specialist, Dep’t of Def./Army, GS 12, Fort Liberty, NC, closes 4/10/24 (non-public).

Gov’t Info Specialist, Dep’t of the Treasury/IRS, GS 14, closes 4/10/24 (non-public).

Gov’t Info. Specialist, Dep’t of the Air Force, GS 12, Offut AFB, NE, closes 4/10/24 (non-public).

Gov’t Info Specialist, Dep’t of Def./Army, GS 12, Fort Meade, MD, closes 4/11/24.

Gov’t Info Specialist, Dep’t of Veterans Affairs/VBA, GS 13, location negotiable, closes 4/11/24 (non-public).

Gov’t Info. Specialist, DHS/FEMA, GS 9-11, Washington, D.C., closes 4/11/24 (non-public).

Gov’t Info. Specialist, DHS/FEMA, GS 9-11, Washington, D.C., closes 4/11/24.

Gov’t Info. Specialist, Dep’t of Veterans Affairs/VHA, GS 12, Asheville, NC, closes 4/12/24 (non-public).

Gov’t Info. Specialist, Dep’t of Veterans Affairs/VBA, GS 13, Overland, MO, closes 4/12/24 (non-public).

Gov’t Info. Specialist, Dep’t of Veterans Affairs/VHA, GS 12, Shreveport, LA, closes 4/12/24 (non-public).

Sup. Atty-Advisor, Dep’t of Justice/NSD, GS 15, Washington, D.C., closes 4/12/24.

Gov’t Info. Specialist, Dep’t of Justice/DEA, GS 7-9, Arlington, VA, closes 4/14/24 (non-public).

Gov’t Info. Specialist, Dep’t of Energy/WAPA, GS 12-13, various locations, closes 4/15/24.

Gov’t Info. Specialist, Dep’t of Energy/WAPA, GS 12-13, various locations, closes 4/15/24 (non-public).

Sup. Gov’t Info. Specialist, DHS/FEMA, GS 14, Washington, D.C., closes 4/15/24 or first 100 applications.

Sup. Gov’t Info. Specialist, DHS/FEMA, GS 14, Washington, D.C., closes 4/15/24 or first 100 applications (non-public)

Attorney Advisor, Dep’t of Justice/OIP, GS 12-15, Washington, D.C., closes 4/18/24.

Federal positions closing on or after April 19, 2024

Attorney Adviser Int’l, Dep’t of State, GS 12-13, Washington, D.C., closes 4/22/24.

Attorney Advisor Int’l, Dep’t of State, GS 14-15, Washington, D.C., closes 4/22/24.

Court opinion issued Apr. 4, 2024

Abissi. v. USCIS (D. Md.) -- granting government’s motion to transfer case involving asylum records to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia because only two of seven plaintiffs reside in Maryland and the responsive records are maintained in Missouri; rejecting plaintiff’s argument that venue could be established in Maryland based on the Maryland location of the agency’s Asylum Division headquarters.

Summaries of all published opinions issued in 2024 are available here. Earlier opinions are available here.