Artificial intelligence (AI) is already being used in parts of the public service including hospitals and the Revenue Commission, the launch of new guidelines for the sector heard on Thursday.
Free AI tools such as ChatGPT are not advised for use due to lack of suitable and management under the guidelines, however.
Minister for Public Expenditure Jack Chambers said AI offered “the potential to radically improve the efficiency and effectiveness of public services”.
He said the new guidelines “provide a framework for public servants to really embrace and to use AI across their daily lives”.
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Thursday’s event heard how AI was already being used at St Vincent’s University Hospital, Dublin, where they were exploring the potential for AI to assist with performing heart ultrasound scans to help reduce waiting times for patients.
The Revenue Commissioners are using computer-based large language models to route taxpayer queries more efficiently, ensuring faster and better responses.
The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine is developing an AI-supported solution to detect errors in grant applications and reduce processing times for applications.
“Artificial intelligence is no longer a distant reality. It’s already shaping our lives, our economy and crucially how governments serve their people,” Mr Chambers said at the launch of the document entitled Guidelines for the Responsible Use of Artificial Intelligence in the Public Service.
The guidelines stated that AI could be used for a number of tasks in the public service such as identifying and categorising data, detecting and monitoring patterns, outliers or anomalies often in real time.
It could also use past and existing behaviour and data to predict future outcomes to inform decision making, tailoring services, content or experiences to the needs of users.
In addition it could improve communication and interactions between users and systems. AI algorithms could also optimise processes or decision-making.
Mr Chambers stressed that humans would remain at the forefront of how AI was to be deployed as a way to enhance public trust in how the government used the technology.
