Artificial intelligence in government

Short description: Use of AI in government areas

Template:Government by algorithm

Artificial intelligence

Major goals

* Knowledge reasoning
* Planning
* Machine learning
* Natural language processing
* Computer vision
* Robotics
* Artificial general intelligence

Approaches

* Symbolic
* Deep learning
* Bayesian networks
* Evolutionary algorithms

Philosophy

* Ethics
* Existential risk
* Turing test
* Chinese room
* Control problem
* Friendly AI

History

* Timeline
* Progress
* AI winter

Technology

* Applications
* Projects
* Programming languages

Glossary

* Glossary

* v
* t
* e

Artificial intelligence (AI) has a range of uses in government. It can be used to further public policy objectives (in areas such as emergency services, health and welfare), as well as assist the public to interact with the government (through the use of virtual assistants, for example). According to the Harvard Business Review, "Applications of artificial intelligence to the public sector are broad and growing, with early experiments taking place around the world."[1] Hila Mehr from the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation at Harvard University notes that AI in government is not new, with postal services using machine methods in the late 1990s to recognise handwriting on envelopes to automatically route letters.[2] The use of AI in government comes with significant benefits, including efficiencies resulting in cost savings (for instance by reducing the number of front office staff) and reducing the opportunities for corruption.[3] However, it also carries risks (described below).

## Contents

* 1 Uses of AI in government
* 1.1 Contributing to public policy objectives
* 1.2 Assisting public interactions with government
* 1.3 Gerrymandering
* 1.4 Other uses
* 2 Potential benefits
* 3 Risks
* 4 See also
* 5 References
* 6 Further reading

## Uses of AI in government

The potential uses of AI in government are wide and varied,[4] with Deloitte considering that "Cognitive technologies could eventually revolutionize every facet of government operations".[5] Mehr suggests that six types of government problems are appropriate for AI applications:[2]

1. Resource allocation—such as where administrative support is required to complete tasks more quickly.
2. Large datasets—where these are too large for employees to work efficiently and multiple datasets could be combined to provide greater insights.
3. Expert shortage—including where basic questions could be answered and niche issues can be learned.
4. Predictable scenario—historical data makes the situation predictable.
5. Procedural tasks refer to repetitive tasks in which the answers to inputs or outputs are binary.
6. Diverse data—where data takes various forms (such as visual and linguistic) and needs to be summarized regularly.

Mehr states that "While applications of AI in government work have not kept pace with the rapid expansion of AI in the private sector, the potential use cases in the public sector mirror common applications in the private sector." [2]

Potential and actual uses of AI in government can be divided into three broad categories: those that contribute to public policy objectives, those that assist public interactions with the government, and other uses.

### Contributing to public policy objectives

There are a range of examples of where AI can contribute to public policy objectives.[4] These include:

* Receiving benefits at job loss, retirement, bereavement and child birth almost immediately, in an automated way (thus without requiring any actions from citizens at all)[6]
* Social insurance service provision[3]
* Classifying emergency calls based on their urgency (like the system used by the Cincinnati Fire Department in the United States[7])
* Detecting and preventing the spread of diseases[7]
* Assisting public servants in making welfare payments and immigration decisions[1]
* Adjudicating bail hearings[1]
* Triaging health care cases[1]
* Monitoring social media for public feedback on policies[8]
* Monitoring social media to identify emergency situations[8]
* Identifying fraudulent benefits claims[8]
* Predicting a crime and recommending optimal police presence[8]
* Predicting traffic congestion and car accidents[8]
* Anticipating road maintenance requirements[8]
* Identifying breaches of health regulations[8]
* Providing personalised education to students[7]
* Marking exam papers[1]
* Assisting with defence and national security (see Artificial intelligence § Military and Applications of artificial intelligence § Other fields in which AI methods are implemented respectively)

Artificial Intelligence in China has been used to drive both political and economic markets. In 2019, Shanghai’s government rolled out 100 billion yuan to assist in funding enterprises that used AI to introduce 22 new policy agendas. Shanghai invested in these enterprises to attract top international talent in order to set up the Shanghai Municipal Big Data Center. City Brain AI is an urban management platform made by Alibaba. China uses City Brain AI to maintain a significant share of capital investment through public and state owned enterprises. The synergy between public and private sectors are more than capital-driven with City Brain AI. The blend of both public and private shareholding is only made out to be through the role of provincial and sub-provincial governments. Both hold control over the direction that City Brain AI makes both socially and economically.[9]

### Assisting public interactions with government

AI can be used to assist members of the public to interact with government and access government services,[4] for example by:

* Answering questions using virtual assistants or chatbots (see below)
* Directing requests to the appropriate area within government[2]
* Filling out forms[2]
* Assisting with searching documents (e.g. IP Australia's trade mark search[10])
* Scheduling appointments[8]

Various governments, including those of Australia[11] and Estonia,[12] have implemented virtual assistants to aid citizens in navigating services, with applications ranging from tax inquiries to life-event registrations.

### Gerrymandering

Gerrymandering is a method of influencing political process by drawing map boundaries in favor of incumbent parties. Academic researchers Wendy Tam Cho and Bruce Cain have proposed partially automating the map-drawing process with an AI system to reduce partisan gerrymandering. Even with this AI system, the process may still be manipulated to favor partisan interests, so the researchers emphasized the importance of transparency and human involvement. [13][14]

### Other uses

Other uses of AI in government include:

* Translation[2]
* Language interpretation pioneered by the European Commission's Directorate General for Interpretation and Florika Fink-Hooijer.
* Drafting documents[2]

## Potential benefits

AI offers potential efficiencies and cost savings for the government. For example, Deloitte has estimated that automation could save US Government employees between 96.7 million to 1.2 billion hours a year, resulting in potential savings of between $3.3 billion to $41.1 billion a year.[5] The Harvard Business Review has stated that while this may lead a government to reduce employee numbers, "Governments could instead choose to invest in the quality of its services. They can re-employ workers' time towards more rewarding work that requires lateral thinking, empathy, and creativity—all things at which humans continue to outperform even the most sophisticated AI program."[1]

## Risks

Risks associated with the use of AI in government include AI becoming susceptible to bias,[2] a lack of transparency in how an AI application may make decisions,[7] and the accountability for any such decisions.[7] For example, a 2026 lawsuit alleged that the U.S. Department of Government Efficiency used ChatGPT to flag and cancel federal humanities grants, including projects on Jewish history and Israeli culture, over some objections from NEH officials, illustrating how automated decision-making could affect funding outcomes.[15][16][17]

## See also

* Applications of artificial intelligence
* Artificial general intelligence
* Artificial intelligence and elections
* Civic technology
* e-government
* Existential risk from artificial general intelligence
* Government by algorithm
* AI for Good
* Lawbot
* Project Cybersyn
* Regulation of artificial intelligence
* Sentient (intelligence analysis system)
* Singleton (global governance)

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 Martinho-Truswell, Emma (26 January 2018). "How AI Could Help the Public Sector". Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2018/01/how-ai-could-help-the-public-sector. Retrieved 31 December 2018.
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 Mehr, Hila (August 2017). "Artificial Intelligence for Citizen Services and Government". https://ash.harvard.edu/files/ash/files/artificial_intelligence_for_citizen_services.pdf.
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Zheng, Yongqing Yu, Han Cui, Lizhen Miao, Chunyan Leung, Cyril Yang, Qiang (2018). Smarths: An AI platform for improving government service provision. OCLC 1125199733.
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Wirtz, Bernd W.; Weyerer, Jan C.; Geyer, Carolin (24 July 2018). "Artificial Intelligence and the Public Sector—Applications and Challenges". International Journal of Public Administration 42 (7): 596–615. doi:10.1080/01900692.2018.1498103. ISSN 0190-0692. https://zenodo.org/record/3569435.
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 "Executive Summary - Demystifying artificial intelligence in government | Deloitte Insights". 26 April 2017. https://www2.deloitte.com/insights/us/en/focus/cognitive-technologies/artificial-intelligence-government-summary.html.
6. ↑ Marten Kaevats on the 'invisible government'
7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 Capgemini Consulting (2017). "Unleashing the potential of Artificial Intelligence in the Public Sector". https://www.capgemini.com/consulting/wp-content/uploads/sites/30/2017/10/ai-in-public-sector.pdf.
8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 8.5 8.6 8.7 Institute of Public Administration Australia. "In Brief - Artificial Intelligence in the Public Sector". https://www.act.ipaa.org.au/brief-artificial.
9. ↑ Cai, Q. (2025). The Cultural Politics of Artificial Intelligence in China. Theory, Culture & Society, 42(3), 21-40. https://doi.org/10.1177/02632764241304718 (Original work published 2025)
10. ↑ OECD (2018). "Embracing Innovation in Government: Global Trends 2018". http://www.oecd.org/innovation/innovative-government/innovation2018.htm.
11. ↑ "NDIA recruits Cate Blanchett to voice new avatar". 22 February 2017. https://www.cio.com.au/article/614647/ndia-recruits-cate-blanchett-voice-new-avatar/.
12. ↑ "Exclusive: Estonia's vision for an 'invisible government'" (in en). https://govinsider.asia/intl-en/article/marten-kaevats-national-digital-advisor-estonias-vision-for-an-invisible-government.
13. ↑ Coldewey, Devin (5 September 2020). "AI-drawn voting districts could stamp out gerrymandering". Tech Crunch. https://techcrunch.com/2020/09/04/ai-drawn-voting-districts-could-help-stamp-out-gerrymandering/.
14. ↑ Cho, Wendy; Cain, Bruce (2022). "AI and Redistricting: Useful Tool for the Courts or Another Source of Obfuscation?". The Forum 20 (3–4): 395–408. doi:10.1515/for-2022-2061. https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/for-2022-2061/html?lang=en.
15. ↑ Swindle, David Michael (2026-03-10). "DOGE Staffers Used ChatGPT to Cut Holocaust History Grants During Counter-DEI Purges: Lawsuit" (in en-US). https://www.algemeiner.com/2026/03/10/doge-staffers-used-chatgpt-cut-holocaust-history-grants-during-counter-dei-purges-lawsuit/.
16. ↑ "DOGE sued for canceling Jewish humanities grants over 'DEI' | The Jerusalem Post" (in en). 2026-03-10. https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/antisemitism/article-889424.
17. ↑ Lapin, Andrew (2026-03-10). "Lawsuit says DOGE used ChatGPT to flag Jewish-themed humanities grants as ‘DEI’ before canceling them" (in en). https://www.jta.org/2026/03/09/politics/lawsuit-says-doge-used-chatgpt-to-tag-jewish-themed-humanities-grants-as-dei-before-canceling-them/.

## Further reading

* Cornish, Lisa (5 December 2018). "Bringing intelligence to government decision-making". The Mandarin. https://www.themandarin.com.au/102276-intelligent-decision-making/.
* Garner, Catherine (4 December 2018). "Demystifying artificial intelligence". The Canberra Times. https://www.canberratimes.com.au/politics/federal/demystifying-artificial-intelligence-20181130-p50jgb.html.
* London, Dan (6 June 2018). "Powering AI for government". CIO. https://www.cio.com/article/3279546/artificial-intelligence/powering-ai-for-government.html.

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