Pennsylvania will deploy OpenAI’s enterprise-grade ChatGPT service in a pilot project to help state employees complete administrative tasks. A press release from Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro said the pilot program will begin this month and will be limited to select Pennsylvania executive office employees, but may be expanded to other state workers in the future.
The state government said it would consider feedback from the first batch of employees before issuing a further 100 licenses to access ChatGPT Enterprise.
"The goal of our pilot is to work closely with a small number of employees to identify where using generative AI tools can have the greatest impact," said Neil Weaver, secretary of the Pennsylvania Office of Administration.
Penn State plans to use ChatGPTEnterprise for tasks such as "creating copy, making outdated policy language more understandable, drafting job descriptions to aid recruiting and hiring, [and] resolving duplication and conflicting guidance in employee policies," as well as coding.
The pilot project aims to find ways to use generative artificial intelligence to improve citizen services. Pennsylvania reiterated that only state government workers will be able to use ChatGPT and Pennsylvania residents will not interact directly with the tool when using government services. Penn State plans to learn from the initial launch and identify other institutions that might benefit from generative AI.
This is ChatGPTEnterprise’s first state pilot project. "Our collaboration with Governor Shapiro and the Pennsylvania team will provide valuable insights into how artificial intelligence tools can responsibly enhance state government services," OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said in a statement.
Launched in August last year, ChatGPT Enterprise is OpenAI’s enterprise-level project that gives users more control over their data and security. Shapiro's office said no government or resident data will be used to train the GPT-4 model.
Pennsylvania is one of a handful of states that has announced plans to explore the use of artificial intelligence in state governance. Shapiro issued an executive order in September exploring how the state could use artificial intelligence. It established the Generative AI Governing Board (GenerativeAIGoverningBoard), which recommended working with OpenAI on pilot projects.
While states like Pennsylvania embrace generative AI, there are also states planning to restrict its use in government services. A California lawmaker this month filed a bill that would ban unvetted artificial intelligence companies from contracting with state agencies.