Senate staff should only use services like OpenAI’s ChatGPT for research and evaluation with non-sensitive data, according to a notice from the chief information officer for the chamber’s Sergeant at Arms.
The Senate CIO notice was shared in a Dec. 14 blog from POPVOX Foundation, which is funded by Democracy Fund and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation to increase citizen engagement with government.
The notice links to risk assessments conducted on OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google Bard’s AI and Microsoft’s Bing AI Chat, noting they all present a moderate level of risk if controls are adhered to.
“These guidelines are meant to mitigate the privacy and data security risks associated with using these services,” it reads, adding: “Treat Al tools similarly to search engines and other public websites, with no expectation of privacy or accuracy; do not put sensitive or private information into an Al tool; assume all information you put into an Al tool could be used elsewhere or be seen by others; keep in mind, information may be gleaned from the series of prompts you provide to interact with an Al tool; always verify accuracy of the information generated by Al tools through additional trusted resources; human review of generated content from an Al tool is essential to ensuring that the content is accurate and appropriate.”
The POPVOX Foundation blog praised the release of the guidelines, noting they are in line with ones issued by the House side. In a previous blog post from Nov. 3 on the House’s guidance, POPVOX Foundation said, “although limited at first glance, the House’s proactive, transparent approach to setting institutional guardrails for use of this emerging technology is creating an environment in which innovation can safely begin.”
The House guidance only approved the paid ChatGPT plus service, which is available with a $20 per month subscription. The Senate guidance also mentions the paid service but noted, “Only Official Office Funds may be used to purchase OpenAl ChatGPT Plus licenses. No other funding type may be used.”