We acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land on which we work and pay our respects to all Elders past and present, and to the children of today who are the Elders of the future.
Artist: Jasmine Sarin, a proud Kamilaroi and Jerrinja woman.
The NSW Ombudsman shone a spotlight on the fair and ethical use of artificial intelligence (AI) in the public sector, at the Australasian and Pacific Ombudsman Region Conference, which ran from September 3 – 5 in Taipei, Taiwan.
Speaking on the topic of ‘Scrutinising government use of AI / Using it wisely ourselves’, Ombudsman Paul Miller spoke about the integrity agency’s research and guidance in this area, trusted oversight of public sector use of AI in decision-making, and its own cautious implementation of AI, which has attracted the interest of other agencies across the globe.
“As an oversight agency that is focused on legal and fair decision-making and conduct by government agencies, it is important that we are pro-active in understanding and helping to guide the public sector in the rapidly expanding field of AI use in public administration,” Mr Miller said.
“The ethics and integrity of government is a matter of global interest. As AI continues to evolve, information sharing across borders will become increasingly important. It was an honour to share our insights with overseas counterparts.”
The NSW Ombudsman has generated a number of recent reports relating to the issue of ethics and AI usage in government.
In early 2024, the Ombudsman tabled ‘A map of automated decision-making (ADM) in the NSW Public Sector’ in NSW Parliament. The report was a world-first attempt to comprehensively identify and raise public visibility about how the public sector is already using, or planning in the future to use, automated decision making (ADM) systems, including AI, in the performance of their functions.
The 2024 report followed the Ombudsman’s groundbreaking 2021 report titled, ‘The new machinery of government: using machine technology in administrative decision-making’. In that report, the Ombudsman highlighted the intersection between the emerging use of ADM in the public sector and the requirements of administrative law and good conduct practices.
“We acknowledged that ADM could offer significant potential benefits to agencies and the public, but questioned whether adequate attention was being given to fundamental aspects of public law and good decision-making principles that are always applicable to the exercise of statutory and other administrative functions,” Mr Miller said.
Beyond supporting research and being an oversight body for government AI usage, the Ombudsman has begun using AI to enhance its own services.
Following careful development and extensive testing, the Ombudsman launched an online AI assistant earlier this year, which provides the public with 24/7 support and help to navigate complex complaint systems and understand the role of the Ombudsman.
“Over 2,000 conversations have taken place with our AI assistant already, and we’ve now had enquiries about the technology coming in from across NSW, Australia and beyond,” Mr Miller said.
Internally, while the NSW Ombudsman maintains a general prohibition on the use of any AI systems when performing any of its complaint-handling or other statutory function, it is piloting the use of ‘Co-counsel’, a product designed by Thomson Reuters for legal, audit and accounting professionals. Co-Counsel is a closed AI system that maintains the security and privacy of agency data, which is not used to train the model.
The Ombudsman also supported and recently released innovative research by the University of Newcastle on the use of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) to enhance the complaints process for consumers who speak English as a Second Language (ESL).
“A key strategic goal for us is to foster trust and enhance accessibility of our services. Innovations in AI have a role to play in our ability to meet that commitment.” said Mr Miller. “Importantly, in developing our policies and practices for our own use of technology, we aim to also provide an example to the agencies we oversight showing how this can be done ethically and responsibly.”
The NSW Ombudsman’s research reports and guidance on AI use in the public sector is available here.
We acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land on which we work and pay our respects to all Elders past and present, and to the children of today who are the Elders of the future.
Artist: Jasmine Sarin, a proud Kamilaroi and Jerrinja woman.