The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office final yr banned the usage of generative AI for any function, citing security issues associated to the expertise and the propensity of some instruments to exhibit “bias, unpredictability, and dangerous habits.” , in accordance with an April 2023 report. Internal steering observe obtained by WIRED by a public information request. Jamie Holcombe, the USPTO’s chief data officer, wrote that the workplace is “dedicated to pursuing innovation inside our company” however remains to be “working to carry these capabilities to the workplace in a accountable approach.”
Paul Fucito, press secretary for the USPTO, clarified to WIRED that staff can use “state-of-the-art generative AI fashions” at work, however solely inside the company’s inside testing setting. “Innovators throughout the USPTO are actually utilizing the AI Lab to higher perceive the capabilities and limitations of generative AI and to prototype AI-based options for important enterprise wants,” Fucito wrote in an e-mail .
Outside of the testing setting, USPTO personnel are prohibited from counting on synthetic intelligence applications resembling OpenAI’s ChatGPT or Anthropic’s Claude for work-related duties. Last yr’s steering observe additionally bans the usage of any output from the instruments, together with AI-generated photographs and movies. But Patent Office staff can use some permitted synthetic intelligence applications, like those inside the company’s public database for looking out registered patents and patent functions. Earlier this yr, the USPTO permitted a $75 million contract with Accenture Federal Services to replace its patent database with enhanced AI-powered search capabilities.
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, an company inside the Department of Commerce, is charged with defending inventors, granting patents, and registering emblems. It additionally, in accordance with the USPTO, “advises the President of the United States, the Secretary of Commerce, and U.S. authorities businesses on mental property (IP) coverage, safety, and enforcement.” website.
At a Google-sponsored occasion in 2023, Holcombe, the writer of the steering observe, mentioned government bureaucracy makes it troublesome for the general public sector to make use of new applied sciences. “Everything we do in authorities is fairly silly, in comparison with the industrial world, proper?” he mentioned. Holcombe particularly cited cumbersome price range, procurement and compliance processes, arguing that they hinder the federal government’s capacity to shortly undertake improvements like synthetic intelligence.
The USPTO is not the one authorities company to ban employees from utilizing generative AI, at the least for some functions. Earlier this yr, the National Archives and Records Administration the use of ChatGPT is prohibited on government-issued laptops, in accordance with 404 Media. But quickly after, the National Archives hosted an inside presentation that encouraged employees to “consider (Google’s) Gemini as a colleague.” During the assembly, some archivists reportedly expressed issues in regards to the accuracy of generative AI. Next month, the National Archives plans to launch a brand new public chatbot for accessing archival paperwork developed with Google expertise.
Other US authorities businesses are utilizing, or avoiding, generative AI in numerous methods. THE National Aeronautics and Space Administrationfor instance, it has expressly prohibited the usage of AI chatbots for delicate information. NASA, nevertheless, determined to take action experience 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 do that aggregate satellite data to make it simply searchable. This device is just out there to NASA scientists and researchers, however the purpose is to “democratize entry to area information.”
