Public servants have been issued guidance on using the latest tech tools.

The Digital Transformation Agency (DTA), in collaboration with the Department of Industry, Science and Resources (DISR), has released interim guidance on the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the Australian public sector. 

The guidelines address the need for better governance and oversight of AI technologies such as ChatGPT, Bard AI, and Bing AI, to prevent potentially major problems.

The key recommendations in the guidance include the immediate logging, recording, and permissioning of generative AI usage by public servants and suppliers to the public service. It has been suggested that there may already be widespread unauthorised use of these technologies. 

The DTA advises agencies to implement an enrolment mechanism for staff user accounts, with approval processes overseen by Chief Information Security Officers (CISO) or Chief Information Officers (CIO).

To ensure adherence to the policy, agencies are expected to self-report any breaches related to the use of formative AI and establish a reporting avenue for staff to notify exceptions to the guidance. 

The DTA says it is concerned about publicly available generative AI platforms, which lack security risk assessment and commercial contracts with the agencies.

While government agencies have been using AI for years, the DTA and DISR are primarily concerned about the potential negative impact of unregulated and biased generative AI. 

They worry about the contamination of trusted data sets and models, which could compromise the integrity of various departmental outputs. 

The advisory aims to address these concerns and provide a set of guiding principles for the ethical use of AI in government. 

The principles focus on responsible and safe technology usage, minimising harm, upholding ethical standards, increasing transparency, and building community trust.

The guidance also provides examples of AI use cases and emphasises the need to avoid sharing sensitive or classified information on public AI platforms. 

It advises staff to validate information received from AI tools before use and to follow their agency's policies and guidance on generative AI tools.

As part of public consultation, the Department of Industry, Science and Resources has released a discussion paper on the safe and responsible use of AI. 

The feedback received will inform regulatory and policy responses, building upon the government's substantial investment in responsible AI through the 2023-24 Budget.

For now, the interim guidance is available on the Australian Government Architecture website.