Policy on artificial intelligence adopted by town

By Rob VogtClaresholm town council has approved a policy governing the use of artificial intelligence in town operations.The decision came at council’s Aug. 17 meeting, after they reviewed a report from administration and heard a presentation from Patrick Gaede, the town’s municipal intern.The report stated that as artificial intelligence continues to develop, administration has determined a policy is required to safeguard, manage and control the use of artificial intelligence within the municipality.This applies to all employees, council members, volunteers, and other authorized users of the Town of Claresholm, ensuring they will exercise caution, restraint and common sense when using generative artificial intelligence.Artificial intelligence use in the workplace has increasingly become prevalent and requires the town to ensure personal information is not put into publicly available artificial intelligence generative tools, such as Chat GPT.This policy outlines the differences between publicly available artificial intelligence generative tools and generative artificial intelligence systems controlled or configured by the municipality.Use of artificial intelligence tools must be consistent with all applicable laws and regulatory requirements. Failure to do so constitutes an unlawful disclosure of information.The intention of this policy is to ensure all authorized users within the town comply with applicable laws and promote transparency; effectively use artificial intelligence tools in municipal operations; and minimize the risk of exposing sensitive or confidential information.This policy will provide clear guidelines and expectations to all Town of Claresholm employees, volunteers and other authorized users governing the use of generative artificial intelligence.Gaede explained that at its June 22 meeting, town council voted to direct discussion of the generative artificial intelligence usage policy to the town’s administrative services committee.He said council was worried this policy would be too restrictive of the town’s use of artificial intelligence and worried the policy may be a handicap as artificial intelligence continues to develop.Based on committee discussion, parameters were changed to both require approval for artificial intelligence use by the town’s privacy and access coordinator, and changed to apply only to official town reports.These changes were made to manage the town’s control over artificial intelligence use.The administrative services committee agreed on the amendments and approved bringing the policy back to council.“I think the improvements are good,” said Coun. Rod Kettles.Council then approved the generative artificial intelligence usage policy.