Access To Stochastically Approximate Information – “Through a series of public records requests, Cascade PBS and KNKX obtained thousands of pages of ChatGPT conversation logs from city officials in Washington. The volume of the records suggests widespread use of the technology in local government.” When government officials use generative AI chatbots those ‘conversations’ are considered public records that can be requested under the Freedom Of Information Act.

Most chat logs the request turned up are mundane. They show city staff using ChatGPT for tasks like debugging code, formatting spreadsheets and summarizing meeting notes. Numerous employees use it to rewrite emails to improve tone.

Records show city staff trust AI with complex tasks, like researching enterprise software for the city, writing evaluation matrixes for contracts, summarizing court cases and legislation, giving feedback on policy, and synthesizing large batches of public comment.

When a senior citizen in Bellingham emailed about not being able to afford utilities, a city official pasted his email into ChatGPT and asked for “a sympathetic response.”

Records show city staff asked the chatbot policy questions related to things like increasing housing supply, gunshot detection tools and what “the primary goals and objectives” of a city’s disaster recovery plan should be.

“The City of Everett WA is considering tenant protections,” one staffer told ChatGPT, uploading a copy of a draft tenant protection ordinance. “What are policy questions the city should consider?”