Well this is disappointing 😖

"... The Commonwealth holds some of the most sensitive personal information of its more than 7 million residents — and under the Healey administration’s three-year, roughly $4.3-million-a-year contract with OpenAI, all of that is now in the orbit of a private AI system ..."
#Massachusetts #AI #privacy
#mapoli
https://commonwealthbeacon.org/the-codcast/what-it-means-that-a-state-ai-assistant-will-handle-your-data/

What it means that a state ‘AI assistant’ will handle your data

This week on The Codcast, we dig into the new partnership between Massachusetts and OpenAI to roll out an AI assistant to help with daily governmental tasks. CommonWealth Beacon reporter Jennifer Smith is joined by Technology Secretary Jason Snyder, who says his goals include “democratizing innovation” and helping streamline bureaucratic systems like the DMV. Snyder discusses the contract with OpenAI, concerns around data privacy and bias in AI systems, and explains why the state is leaning so hard into AI adoption.

CommonWealth Beacon

@CuriousMagpie
My letter to the Healey administration:

As a supported of your administration and someone who is deeply proud to live and participate in choosing how we Massachusetts, and as someone who has worked with big data, statistical analysis, and machine learning tools for decades, I want to register my extreme disappointment that the Commonwealth has started using OpenAI (or frankly, any) LLM/Generative AI product.

(... 1/2)

@CuriousMagpie
(... 2/2)

These products are inherently error-prone, insecure, and wasteful, and they cannot be made in a way that fixes these issues (see ongoing research from MIT and others over the last several years).

Write better software, hire better people, train existing staff better, make the legislative and regulatory processes work better, but don't waste my money and that of millions of other Massachusetts residents on intractably bad snake oil like "AI."

Thank you.

-Bill

@wcbdata excellent, thank you!