In late January, the Wise County Commissioners Court launched a nine-month pilot program to help officials determine how Artificial Intelligence (AI) could be used to benefit county government.
“Our progress to date has been mostly on the backend,” shared Wise County Emergency Management Coordinator Cody Powell, project manager. “We have been learning how to use AI and experimenting with different use cases.”
In mid-April, the project team was working toward rolling out the first beta test to employees who are not on the project team.
“This is exciting for us as it will be the first time we are able to get this technology in the hands of employees who were not part of developing it,” Powell said. “That will be a good test and strong indicator for what AI will look like in Wise County in the future.”
County Progress asked Powell to share a simplified definition of AI and discuss potential uses, common concerns, and cost factors.
What is Artificial Intelligence?
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a technology that allows computers to perform tasks that typically require human intelligence, Powell defined. AI can be thought of as an advanced form of spellchecking technology that enables computers to process information and take specific actions based on existing data. Just like early word processing applications introduced spellcheck, AI compares new information against known data and takes appropriate action. In the case of spellcheck, a typed word is compared to words already known to exist, and if it doesn’t match, an action is taken, such as highlighting or correcting the word. As AI has evolved, some tasks have been automated, and new capabilities have been added. The evolution of spellcheck serves as a useful analogy for understanding how AI works.
How could AI benefit Wise County government operations?
AI has the potential to benefit Wise County government operations in various ways, including improving decision-making processes, increasing efficiency, and reducing costs. For example, AI can be used to analyze large amounts of data quickly, identify trends, and provide insights that would otherwise take humans a long time to process manually. One of the greatest benefits I have seen in time savings is using AI to draft documents, even simple communications like a memo or email. Like most people working in local government, there is a lot of switching between tasks and juggling that takes place daily. If I need to draft a simple memo to pass along some information and have a lot going on, it helps to be able to input the information into an AI platform that I have already trained on the proper format. Where I would normally need to stop, slow my mind down, and take a minute to make sure I draft a proper memo, I can now type the core information into a text box and have a properly formatted and drafted memo. What could have been a process that takes 15-20 minutes can now be done in less than five minutes.
*Disclaimer: Most of the five minutes is spent proofreading to make sure the information the AI output is correct. Even though it saves time, we don’t fully trust the AI to be accurate.
What are some common concerns when it comes to using AI?
Some people may have fears or concerns about using AI due to its potential for bias, lack of transparency, or job displacement. However, based on what I have learned so far, these concerns can be alleviated by implementing proper data management practices, ensuring transparency in decision-making processes, and investing in training that help workers adapt to new technologies.
NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang couldn’t have said it better: “AI isn’t here to replace you, but someone who knows how to use it effectively might.” I may be naïve, but I see AI as a force multiplier, not a force reduction strategy. AI is a technology like many that have come before. I think some of the fears surrounding AI are, in part, due to not realizing how far we have already come in a short period of time. It wasn’t long ago that typing skills were a common job requirement, eventually being replaced by “computer literacy” with the ability to type at certain speeds.
The Cost of AI
The cost projection of using AI in Wise County government is part of what the exploratory project will fully identify. A proper evaluation of the cost is more complex than implementation, as there really are a lot of factors. We were able to work with a vendor who was able to lock in our annual rate, which provides us with an unlimited number of users. I feel we are very fortunate to have found this vendor.
It is common for AI to charge based on use or a set fee per seat, even if that seat is a limited user. With a flat fee and no user thresholds, it frees us up to be able to not only use AI freely, but also to test future use cases. Additionally, cost has to include development and planning for the future. I would highly encourage any county considering AI to also consider developer tools, which is an added cost. Long term, there is a lot to consider as it relates to data retention and data storage, either cloud or self-hosted.
There is also a data migration consideration; artificial intelligence likes structured data, so if there is not already some sort of document management system in place, you will need to consider how to move from unstructured to structured data so the AI will be able to use it. We are also confident that AI will allow us to purge some existing software which will be a cost savings. In summary, it is too soon to say what the actual long-term cost will be.
Wise County Judge J.D. Clark is the First Vice President of the National Association of Counties (NACo) and will be sworn in as NACo President in July. NACo has developed an AI reference for counties, AI County Compass: A Comprehensive Toolkit for Local Governance and Implementation of Artificial Intelligence, available at https://bit.ly/AI-toolkit-NACo. Travis County Judge Andy Brown serves as co-chair of NACo’s Artificial Intelligence Exploratory Committee.
