Prominent among the topics of interest is the use of AI in making decisions on benefit applications. Image: Andrey_Popov/Shutterstock.com
By: FEDweek StaffThe top leaders of the Senate Finance Committee have pressed the SSA for details on how it plans to procure and deploy additional AI tools, how it expects to find qualified employees to operate them, and how it will balance AI-based and human-based decision making.
The questions raised in a letter from Sens. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, reflect the type of scrutiny that is growing along with agency use of AI. The SSA already uses more than a dozen such systems, it notes, for tasks such as reviewing medical evidence in disability claims, expediting disability claims that are likely to be awarded benefits and identifying cases with possible fraud or abuse instances.
That may be expanded, they noted, for both internal purposes such as helping employees better understand and apply rules and external purposes such as customer service chatbots. But they said that “Notwithstanding its capabilities, AI is not a panacea for all challenges facing SSA.”
“Without the proper structure and guidelines for the procurement, deployment, and monitoring of AI systems, SSA’s use of AI could reduce the effectiveness of its benefit administration processes, exacerbate improper payments, and jeopardize beneficiaries’ financial security. To mitigate the risks associated with deploying AI across its programs, SSA must have strong governance frameworks in place that, among other important aspects, clarify the role of human discretion,” they said.
Prominent among the topics of interest is the use of AI in making decisions on benefit applications. It asks for a description of the programs using AI for that purpose, including metrics used to evaluate it, guidance to employees on using it, what happens when a human reviewer disagrees with the AI output, and what circumstances might cause the agency to stop using it.
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