Carlton County Proposes Rules for ChatGPT and Artificial Intelligence
Carlton County commissioners are being asked to approve a revised technology policy that expressly regulates employee use of artificial intelligence, including ChatGPT, Claude, Bing, Gemini, Copilot, and similar systems.
Under the proposed policy, generative AI may be used for approved County purposes such as research, data analysis, and communications. Employees would remain responsible for the accuracy, legality, quality, and potential bias of AI-assisted work.
The policy contains several important safeguards:
Private, confidential, protected nonpublic, or otherwise sensitive government data generally may not be entered into public AI systems.
AI-generated work must be reviewed by a human employee before it is used or distributed.
Employees must independently validate information received from AI, including through fact-checking.
County officials must consider an AI product’s accuracy, intended use, privacy practices, security protections, cost, and value before approving it.
Policy violations could result in loss of technology access, termination, contract cancellation, civil proceedings, or criminal action, depending upon the circumstances.
The broader technology policy also states that Carlton County may monitor internet traffic and data transmitted over County systems. County emails are presently archived for a three-year period and may be responsive to public-data requests. Employees are warned that information created, sent, received, or stored on County systems generally carries no personal expectation of privacy.
The policy is an important beginning, but several public-accountability issues remain unresolved.
It does not appear to require the County to maintain a publicly available inventory of AI systems.
It does not require notice when AI materially contributes to a decision affecting a resident.
It does not establish a public process for challenging an AI-assisted decision, nor does it expressly require routine bias testing or publication of AI contracts and data-retention terms.
The central question is not whether Carlton County employees will use artificial intelligence. The proposed policy confirms that they may. The question is whether residents will be told when, where, and how AI is influencing County government.