East Sussex County Council could be set to adopt a formal policy on “the responsible use of AI”.
On Thursday 22 January, Councillor Nick Bennett, lead member for resources and climate change, is set to consider a report calling on him to endorse the authority’s first Artificial Intelligence policy – something that would apply to any council worker using AI services.
In a report to council a spokesperson said, “AI technologies offer significant opportunities to improve council services, drive efficiency, and foster innovation. However, they also introduce new risks and challenges, including ethical considerations, data protection, transparency, and the potential for bias.”
Among other things, the policy would prohibit employees from inputting any “business data” or “personally identifiable data” into any “publicly available AI services.” This sort of data would include any data considered to be “commercially, politically or financially sensitive”.
The policy also notes how, at time of publication, a “publicly available” service is any AI service other than Microsoft Copilot.
Council employees would also have a responsibility to ensure they check any output for accuracy, noting how “AI technology can inherit human bias, can respond inaccurately due to leading questions and can respond based on incomplete data.”
It would also require employees not to “submit prompts that would lead to issues if they were to be made public”.
Other parts of the policy are directed towards anyone with a responsibility for procuring AI systems. It also sets out several general compliance responsibilities for council employees. These include a direction to “report suspected misuse, errors, or harm caused by AI systems” and notes how mechanisms for redress must be made available where individuals are adversely affected.
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