Ohio Creates Policy and Council to Govern Statewide AI Use

Ohio has released a new policy that includes guidance and requirements for how Ohio state government workers can use AI and generative AI for work within their agencies.

The policy, created by a group of state government leaders and IT experts convened by Ohio Lt. Governor Jon Husted, includes a requirement for the Department of Administrative Services to establish a multiagency AI council to govern the state’s use of generative AI solutions.

“Ohio is at the forefront of the innovative use of technology in the public sector and AI has great potential as a tool for productivity, as well as education, customer service and quality of life,” Husted said in a statement. “Ohio needed this guiding policy to leverage the power of AI while also protecting the data behind this rapidly changing technology. AI has the potential to transform the world so we’re building a framework to ensure its responsible use in state government to improve the way we serve our customers, the people of the state of Ohio.”

The nine-page Use of Artificial Intelligence in State of Ohio Solutions policy includes the following regulations:

• Agency use cases and solutions must align with core AI principles to be fair, accountable, secure and safe, explainable and transparent, human-centric and socially beneficial. 
• Agencies must design an approved use case pilot prior to full production implementation and conduct data quality testing for pilot and full production of AI deployments. 
• A human verification process must be in place for decisions made by AI that have a legal, financial, human resources, legislative, organization or regulatory impact. 
• There should be ongoing monitoring of AI-generated output to validate that errors or data bias are not introduced as models evolve. 
• Generative AI for work purposes must be approved by agency directors and in alignment with requirements defined by the AI Council. 
• Only data that is public record should be entered by state employees, contractors or temporary personnel into generative AI tools. 
• All training should create awareness of ethical considerations surrounding the use of AI and generative AI. 

Ohio’s new administrative policy also includes requirements for agencies procuring AI solutions, as well as requirements for security and privacy controls.

Several other states and local government agencies have also recently introduced AI policies and task forces.