(The Center Square) – A 12-week pilot program using the software ChatGPT tried by the North Carolina treasurer’s office increased employee productivity by 10%, first-term Republican Treasurer Brad Briner said Friday.
It was the first state government pilot state program in the nation involving ChatGPT, the treasurer told reporters. The treasurer’s office deals with “massive” amounts of data, Briner said.
“This technology saves a material amount of time,” Briner said.
Employee productivity steadily improved and would have exceeded 10% if the pilot program had continued, he said.
ChapGPT freed up employees to spend more time on more complex task and “human-centered” interactions, Briner said.
“This technology is all about empowering public servants to do an even better job serving our citizens,” he said.
It can also help government use tax dollars more efficiently, he said.
“A big part of fiscal responsibility is leaning toward and embracing new technologies to allow us to be more efficient and effective in everything we do,” the treasurer said. “The successes we report today are just beginning.”
A big challenge was making sure that ChatGPT was not used in areas where personal data was stored, Briner said.
Artificial intelligence can also make mistakes, Briner said, citing the program’s confusion of Aberdeen in Moore County with Aberdeen in Scotland.
“There is always a role for human judgment in this,” Briner said. “So we will make human judgment so much more productive and effective.”
Briner did not cite a specific dollar amount saved by the pilot program. One area where area where ChatGPT helped was in locating unclaimed property for North Carolina citizens.
The technology is not perfect, said Siobahn Grady, founding director of the Institute of Artificial Intelligence at North Carolina Central University who reviewed the state’s AI pilot program.
“But we are not perfect as well,” Grady said Friday. “We always need to do our due diligence and make sure that things are factual and not relying 100% on it to do our jobs.”
When asked if ChapGPT would be effective in the often-criticized Department of Motor Vehicles, Briner said it could.
“There is no question that the power of this technology for anything that deals with data,” Briner said. “There is tremendous productivity growth for all us. The DMV is no different. There is a lot of data they deal with.”
