Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) is hailing as a success a first-in-the-nation pilot project to test how OpenAI’s ChatGPT could assist state employees in doing their jobs.
At an event Friday at Carnegie Mellon University, Shapiro said the workers who participated in the year-long experiment saved nearly eight hours a week by using an enterprise version of ChatGPT with higher cybersecurity controls.
“It’s a big deal,” Shapiro said. “And it’s important to note that I think this is only the beginning of what is possible.”
The Pennsylvania experiment is part of a broader effort by state leaders to test the waters of how AI could be used to enhance government services and improve employee efficiency. More than a dozen states have passed laws governing the use of AI in the public sector, and others are considering proposals this year. Governors in at least 18 states, including Shapiro, have signed AI executive orders.
Read more: Testing AI’s usefulness in state government
Shapiro announced the partnership with OpenAI in January 2024, declaring it the first test of ChatGPT’s usefulness within state government. During the pilot project, 175 employees from 14 agencies experimented with using the chatbot to help them be more efficient. Carnegie Mellon researchers assisted with the pilot.
Prior to the project, nearly half of the employees said they had never used ChatGPT. Afterwards, 85% reported “somewhat positive” or “very positive” experiences with the tool, according to Shapiro’s office.
Among the successes that Shapiro touted were an IT team’s ability to shrink 93 policies down to 34, a reduction in new employee “onboarding” from 90 days to 60 days, and the translation of complicated documents into easy-to-understand training materials. The state has also used ChatGPT to identify open state positions that laid-off federal workers would be a good match for.
Shapiro cautioned that AI is not a replacement for Pennsylvania’s nearly 80,000 state workers.
“We found that human nuance and experience is essential to getting the most out of AI,” Shapiro said. “We confirmed that this tool is a job enhancer, not a job replacer.”
Shapiro signed a letter Friday pledging to include unionized state employees in the process as the state further explores using generative AI. He also vowed not to deploy AI tools that are presented as virtual employees. The letter established a new Generative AI Labor and Management Collaboration Group to solicit input and feedback from employees.
“We understand we have a responsibility to be clear-eyed about the potential pitfalls that these tools pose and to remain thoughtful and strategic about how we implement them,” Shapiro said.
Shapiro’s emphasis on protecting jobs was underscored by Stephen Catanese, president of Service Employees International Union Local 668, which represents 20,000 state and local government employees in Pennsylvania.
Catanese said while union members are interested in AI’s potential, they also worry about privacy and their job security. They also want to have a say in how the technology is deployed.
“It’s important that AI is used in a way that is ethical and with a human hand at the wheel to ensure that risks are mitigated,” Catanese said. “Just because we developed nail guns, doesn’t mean we got rid of building trades jobs … the same thing needs to apply here with generative AI.”
The Pennsylvania partnership with OpenAI is set to sunset on May 31. But Shapiro announced the project’s second phase will begin on June 1. He was joined on stage by Chris Lehane, OpenAI’s chief global affairs officer, who said Shapiro and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman are in “regular contact.”
Shapiro said he hopes his state’s experiment with generative AI “can be a real model for other states.”