AI in Government

Description

The use of artificial intelligence (AI) in government reflects the growth in the use of AI in the economy and in society generally. It is being driven on the one side by technical advances in a number of areas such as machine learning, neural nets and deep learning and on the other by economic forces as many governments continue to try to provide ever more services with ever fewer resources. AI offers enormous potential to reduce the cost of (for example) delivering personalised and customised services to citizens. On the other hand, machines are not accountable and there are opaque and proprietary black boxes already being used to make decisions that can have fundamental effects of the lives of ordinary citizens. While many government agencies identify AI as a priority, the successful diffusion of this innovation has not been realised on a large scale.  

The focus of this mini track will be on both current uses and potential uses of AI in government. We invite contributions on adoption and implementation of AI in public organizations, the benefits and risks as well as on the control, regulation and governance of this technology. While we envisage papers in this track being on the use of AI being primarily on its use in public administration, the mini track will also welcome papers in areas and on topics which come within the wider public sector such as policing and health. It will, however, exclude areas such as national security and the military.  We are also open to considering papers that look at the regulation of AI more generally. Amongst the dimensions of AI in government that might be addressed are:

• Governance of AI and algorithms generally
• Risk management and legal issues
• Emerging technologies and their implications
• Bias and Ethics
• Controlling AI
• Societal and organizational implications
• Impacts on public governance
• Economics
• Privacy
• Transparency
• Accountability
• Explainability
• Outsourcing of AI
• Trust in AI
• Determinants of AI adoption
• Challenges of AI implementation

We welcome submissions with diverse views and methodologies. The goal of this mini track is to promote critical discussion on the current status and future trajectory AI in government.

Minitrack papers should be submitted online via the HICSS submission system by June 15, 2022 (11:59 pm HST).

Minitrack Leaders

Lemuria Carter is a Professor in the School of Information Systems and Technology Management at the University of New South Wales. Her research interests include technology adoption, digital government and privacy. She has published in several top-tier journals including the Journal of the Association for Information Systems, European Journal of Information Systems, Journal of Strategic Information Systems, Information Systems Journal and Decision Support Systems. She currently serves as the digital government track chair for the Americas Conference on Information Systems. Her research has been funded by the Institute for Homeland Security Solutions and the Southeastern Transportation Institute in the United States. 

Dapeng Liu is a lecturer in the School of Information Systems and Technology Management at the University of New South Wales, Sydney. He has published in peer reviewed journals including the Journal of the Association for Information Systems, European Journal of Information Systems, International Journal of Information Management, and Decision Support Systems. His research interests include e-government adoption, information security and privacy, AI divide, AI bias, and knowledge modeling and management. His research has been funded by Microsoft Azure. He currently serves on the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Information Management and other journals.

Mila Gasco-Hernandez holds a MBA and a Ph. D. in public policy evaluation. She is the Research Director at the Center for Technology in Government as well as an Associate Professor at the Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy, both at the University at Albany – SUNY. Before joining SUNY, Dr. Gasco-Hernandez served as a senior researcher at the Institute of Governance and Public Management (currently known as ESADEgov - Center for Public Governance) and the Institute of Innovation and Knowledge Management, both at ESADE Business & Law School in Spain. The main general research question at the center of Dr. Gasco-Hernandez’s research agenda is: why and how does technology-driven innovation happen in the public sector? Most of her research in the last six years has focused on the topics of open government, public sector innovation, smart cities and communities, telework, and artificial intelligence in government. In these areas, she has published six books, more than 25 peer-reviewed articles, 16 peer-reviewed book chapters, and more than 40 peer-reviewed conference papers. She has been awarded more than 15 grants in external funding competitive calls and more than 25 consultancy/applied research projects.