The latest AI rule of the U.S. Congress: no other products except the paid version of ChatGPT are allowed
Source: Financial Associated Press
Author: Shi Zhengcheng
On Monday local time, some media obtained a memorandum signed by the Administrator of the US House of Representatives, Catherine Spindow, explaining the latest requirements for the use of large language model applications within the US legislature.
In the memo sent to all House staffers, Spindow specifically requested that only the paid subscription version of ChatGPT Plus be allowed in **House offices because the paid service includes “important privacy features to protect congressional data.” . **
In addition, the memo clearly outlines the scope for congressional staff to use the latest technology. Firstly, staffers can only use ChatGPT Plus for “research or evaluation” reasons, to explore how this new technology can play a role in the daily operations of Congress, but staffers are not allowed to join it at this time Daily workflow**. At the same time, the staff is not allowed to copy and submit to AI sensitive information that has not been made public.
Employees were also asked to modify ChatGPT’s privacy options so that chat records would not be stored for a long time and used as corpus for training models. By default, users’ chat history is automatically saved on the server. After the emergency shutdown of ChatGPT in Italy at the beginning of the year, OpenAI launched this feature during the rectification process.
Spindow finally emphasized that, except for ChatGPT Plus, including the free version of ChatGPT or other large language model software are currently not allowed to run in Congress.
Background: US Congress buys ChatGPT Plus in bulk
Compared with the superiority of functions, including OpenAI, there is no mention that ChatGPT Plus will be better than the free version in terms of privacy protection. There has even been a leak of private information of ChatGPT Plus subscribers before. So it is not sure why the US Congress insisted that the paid version of ChatGPT can better protect privacy.
However, according to previous reports, The U.S. House of Representatives purchased 40 ChatGPT Plus accounts in batches in April this year, and have distributed them to the office on a “first come, first served” basis, and the subscription fee is also paid by Congress.
In addition, compared with the specific requirement that only paid subscription services can be used, the use of AI in “daily workflow” is much more vague.
In fact, the Executive Office of the Congress also mentioned in previous interviews with the media that Congressional staff have various cases of using ChatGPT, but the most commonly used ones are writing and summarizing content. Even the AI working group within Congress has said internally that AIGC software can be used to generate drafts in response to voter letters, write press releases, summarize large amounts of text in speeches, and draft policy documents and bills.