Lawmakers are beginning to grapple with how their staff use AI
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- Members of Congress are beginning to grapple with how their staff might use AI.
- Many say they haven't yet established an official use policy, or only have informal expectations.
- Others say they don't want their staff using AI at all.
Members of Congress are starting to use AI in their own lives. But many are still figuring out what the rapid adoption of AI means for their offices.
"I'm fine with people using it, if it's a shortcut to getting good work done," said Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia. "I'm pretty insistent that the quality of the material I get be high. So, if I ever feel like quality is being sacrificed, or I'm getting bland talking points rather than real thought, I would call a staffer on it."
Business Insider spoke with nearly a dozen lawmakers on Capitol Hill in December about whether they've established an official AI use policy in their offices, and what their expectations are when it comes to using the technology.
"We certainly don't discourage it," said Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut, who said that his office was currently in the process of establishing rules around AI use.
While some lawmakers said they had set up an AI policy or were in the process of doing so, many said that they had not yet explored the issue.
Others said that any expectations around AI were largely informal.
"I don't have a particular policy, any more than I had a policy over whether people could Google something," said Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts. "In each case, it's important to go back and verify that what you've gotten is accurate. But I don't have a problem with my staffers using ChatGPT as one of their tools when they're working on problems.
"It's important to know how to use the tools, and that means how to get the benefits, but also where to understand the risks," Warren added.
Some lawmakers told Business Insider that they don't want their staff using AI at all.
"I want them to use their brains. It's why God gave it to them," said Republican Rep. Greg Murphy of North Carolina. "I have smart, good staff, and I don't want us to become lazy."
"We discourage it in general," said Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri, adding that he doesn't "have an official no-use policy."
"We absolutely do not use it to write things, to generate stuff, none of that," Hawley added.
Recent polling from Gallup found that more and more US employees are using AI in the workplace, with 23% saying they use it weekly and 45% saying they use it at least a few times per year.
The most common uses, according to that poll, were for consolidating information or data, learning new things, generating ideas, and automating basic tasks.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has largely resisted using AI herself. The New York Democrat's office policy also prohibits staffers from using AI to draft legislation or feeding sensitive constituent data into AI chatbots.
But otherwise, her staff are free to use the technology, as long as they disclose that they're doing so.
"We have a more nuanced office policy," Ocasio-Cortez said. "Me not using AI at all is my choice."
And although Kaine said he's fine with AI use in the office generally, he plans to include a disclaimer on correspondence with constituents, making it clear that any letters his office is sending out to Virginians are not AI-generated.
"We want folks to know that we are not using AI to just thoughtlessly respond to their inquiries," Kaine said.