The US Patent and Trademark Office Banned Staff From Using Generative AI | EUROtoday

The US Patent and Trademark Office banned the usage of generative synthetic intelligence for any function final 12 months, citing safety issues with the expertise in addition to the propensity of some instruments to exhibit “bias, unpredictability, and malicious behavior,” in response to an April 2023 inner steerage memo obtained by WIRED by means of a public information request. Jamie Holcombe, the chief info officer of the USPTO, wrote that the workplace is “committed to pursuing innovation within our agency” however are nonetheless “working to bring these capabilities to the office in a responsible way.”

Paul Fucito, press secretary for the USPTO, clarified to WIRED that workers can use “state-of-the-art generative AI models” at work—however solely contained in the company’s inner testing setting. “Innovators from across the USPTO are now using the AI Lab to better understand generative AI’s capabilities and limitations and to prototype AI-powered solutions to critical business needs,” Fucito wrote in an e-mail.

Outside of the testing setting, USPTO workers are barred from counting on AI packages like OpenAI’s ChatGPT or Anthropic’s Claude for work duties. The steerage memo from final 12 months additionally prohibits the usage of any outputs from the instruments, together with photographs and movies generated by AI. But Patent Office workers can use some accredited AI packages, reminiscent of these throughout the company’s personal public database for wanting up registered patents and patent functions. Earlier this 12 months, the USPTO accredited a $75 million contract with Accenture Federal Services to replace its patent database with enhanced AI-powered search options.

The US Patent and Trademark Office, an company throughout the Department of Commerce, is in control of defending inventors, awarding patents, and registering logos. It additionally “advises the president of the United States, the secretary of commerce, and US government agencies on intellectual property (IP) policy, protection, and enforcement,” in response to the USPTO’s web site.

At a Google-sponsored occasion in 2023, Holcombe, the writer of the steerage memo, stated authorities forms makes it tough for the general public sector to make use of new applied sciences. “Everything we do in the government is pretty stupid, when you compare it to the commercial world, right?” he stated. Holcombe particularly cited cumbersome budgeting, procurement, and compliance processes, arguing that they hamper the federal government’s skill to quickly undertake improvements like synthetic intelligence.

The USPTO is just not the one authorities company to ban workers from utilizing generative AI, not less than for some functions. Earlier this 12 months, the National Archives and Records Administration prohibited the usage of ChatGPT on government-issued laptops, in response to 404 Media. But quickly afterward, the National Archives hosted an inner presentation that inspired workers to “think of [Google’s] Gemini as a co-worker.” During the assembly, some archivists reportedly expressed issues in regards to the accuracy of generative AI. Next month, the National Archives is planning to launch a brand new public chatbot for accessing archival information developed with expertise from Google.

Other US authorities companies are utilizing—or avoiding—generative AI in several methods. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration, for instance, particularly banned the usage of AI chatbots for delicate information. NASA did resolve, nonetheless, to experiment with the expertise for writing code and summarizing analysis. The company additionally introduced final week that it’s working with Microsoft on an AI chatbot that may mixture satellite tv for pc information to make it simply searchable. That software is at the moment accessible solely to NASA scientists and researchers, however the objective is to “democratize access to spaceborne data.”