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IT IS ACCEPTABLE for draft versions of reports produced by the public service to be created by artificial intelligence, say new guidelines released today.
The Department of Public Expenditure and Public Service Reform has published new guidelines setting out what it considers to be “responsible use of AI in the public service”.
The public service includes civil servants working in government departments and State agencies as well as wider public sector workers in areas like education, healthcare and the justice system.
The guidelines outline the type of tasks that AI can be used to support work in the public service.
These include using AI to provide chatbots on government websites, language translation, algorithms for decision-making, policy analysis, and content generation, such as text, images, audio or video.
The guidelines list examples of the type of content that AI can be used to generate in the public service, including analysing lengthy documents and generating summaries or draft versions of reports containing the most important data points and insights.
Other acceptable examples it provides are the automatic generation of language translations of government publications and the creation videos or infographics for public awareness campaigns.
AI can also be used in the public service for identifying and categorising data, detecting and monitoring patterns, and forecasting future trends, the guidelines detail.
The guidelines say that AI has ”the potential to transform Irish Public Services, making them more efficient, fair, and responsive”.
Currently, St. Vincent’s University Hospital is exploring the potential for AI to assist with performing heart ultrasound scans, which could help to reduce waiting times for patients.
The Department of Agriculture is developing an AI-supported solution to detect errors in grant applications that could reduce processing times for applications.
“AI offers immense possibilities to improve the provision of public services,” said Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Jack Chambers.
Minister of State for AI Niamh Smyth added that AI can be used for “unlocking productivity, addressing social challenges and delivering enhanced services”.
However, the guidelines also identify several potential risks associated with using AI in public services.
One of the risks is AI systems could reinforce biases in data, leading to unintended discrimination.
There’s also a risk that complex algorithms can make AI-driven decisions difficult to understand, which in turn could affect public trust.
And automated AI systems can lack flexibility, risking a loss of the “human touch” in public services.
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Can the government take a pay cut too so?
@Will Roche: touché!
@john doe: haha good one government don’t work crazy hours doing their job allegedly running the country. They spend most of their brown nosing their constituents so they get voted back in again. Fixing potholes and sorting out council housing and other various local constituency strikes is not in the formal TDs job description
So AI will be signing off on OPW projects…. Handy.
@bruce banner: Hardly signing off: c
@Brendan O’Brien: creating draft versions of reports.
You’re being slightly disingenuous with your report, you’ve left out the bit where they advise against the use of “free” tools such as ChatGPT and Deepseek.
Department of Important Governmental Activities (DIGA)
Draft Report: National Strategy for Strategic Strategising
TOP SECRET (unless found)
Version: 0.0.1-beta-draft-final-maybe
Executive Disfunctionary Summary
The purpose of this strategical documentation is to outlay our outline for enhancing governmentish activites across the united counties of the Republic of Ireland, which include but are not limited to: policying, administrating, tea-making, and vigorous nodding during EU meetings.
This report was completely generated by AI and has not been read by any actual human, dog, or sentient kettle.
Key Objectives
Increase national productivity by 42%, based on vibes and partial spreadsheet remnants.
Introduce a National Nap Hour from 14:00 to 15:00, excluding weekends, Wednesdays and any day with rain.
Implement AI-driven ban on apostrophes in public signage (they’re just confusing).
Launch Project COW (Citizens Optimising Work) which is definitely not about livestock.
Digitise everything, including sheep.
Public Services Enhancement Strategy
Use AI chatbots to answer citizens’ most pressing queries like:
“Where is my bin?”
“Do I qualify for a free hoverboard?”
“Can I vote twice if I’m really sure?”
AI will also detect potholes using satellite imagery and guesswork. Fixing them remains outside the scope of this report.
Language translation to be automated via a cutting-edge tool called Babel-Babble-Bot 9000, which has a 68% success rate and once translated “flood warnings” as “party invitations”.
Case Study: AI in Agriculture
The Department of Cows & Crops trialled an AI that attempted to teach pigs to file grant applications. This led to several pigs being awarded subsidies for “organic drone repair”.
Risks & Warnings
Bias: Humans tend to prefer other humans, even though AI is objectively more fashionable.
Complexity: AI decisions are based on millions of data points and a very strong gut feeling.
Trust: AI is 87% trustworthy. The remaining 13% is still in beta.
Human Touch: This has been replaced with a “Gentle Reassurance Protocol (v2.1)”.
Visual Aids
Unfortunately, the infographic generator had a meltdown and produced 17 charts of unrelated goat population trends from 1804 to the present day.
Conclusion
This draft confirms that the responsible use of AI will definitely maybe enhance governmental processifying. We recommend immediate rollout, followed by a cautious review, a panic-induced rollback, and finally a public apology by someone not involved.
Ai is only needed if you have an intelligence deficiency.
@087 bed: you’re a big fan yourself then?
Medical records are currently on paper. Good luck bring AI in
AI government next
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