The Department of Energy (DoE) has released an updated version of its Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) Reference Guide to incorporate guidance from President Biden’s October 2023 AI executive order.
DoE’s Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO) released version one of the reference guide last summer, which was born out of the release of OpenAI’s ChatGPT-4 in March 2023. The guide looks to provide guidance on key considerations, risks, and best practices associated with the use of generative AI tech.
Version two features specific guidance from the executive order, such as discouraging broad general bans or blocks on agency use of GenAI.
“The DoE is in the process of considering which GenAI services will be permitted for use based on comprehensive risk assessments,” the 61-page reference guide says. “As decisions on services are made, specific guidelines for usage will be established.”
The guide features several potential use cases for GenAI within DoE, such as summarizing contracts, creating an image based on a text description, transcribing meeting minutes, creating videos for training materials or presentations, and drafting interview questions for a candidate.
The goal of the reference guide is to quickly offer guidance to the rest of the department on how to engage in the GenAI space, according to Gardy Rosius, who now serves as DoE’s deputy CIO.
Rosius was tasked with bringing together a “tiger team” of stakeholders and subject matter experts from across the DoE organization – including DoE’s network of National Labs – to collaborate on the development of version two of the reference guide.
“People sometimes ask the question, ‘Is AI our friend or is AI our enemy?’ And my answer to that is, I think AI is our friend, but just like any good relationship, there are boundaries,” Rosius said in December when discussing the reference guide.
“So, we’re trying to set the boundaries, helping the department to sort of move forward with adoption in a way that we think is consistent with not only with our mission but also with the risks that may be involved,” he added.
The deputy CIO noted that DoE will continue to update the reference guide “so that we are staying on pace with what’s happening in that space.”
