County debates AI and public records
Anderson County officials are discussing how to adjust operations to a new era of chatbots and the ability the media has to access what officials say to them.
The discussion came up at the Nov. 17 County Commission meeting, although it did not come to a vote.
Mayor Terry Frank spoke of another county in which the media requested elected officials provide dialogues they’d had with Chat GPT and OpenAI.
She said this information is easily downloadable.
Frank said county Law Director James Brook’s office was working on a memo to prepare commissioners on what to do with artificial intelligence chatbots and how the media can handle that information.
Brooks said at the meeting that county officials should work under the assumption that anything discussed with an artificial intelligence assistant is public record.
He clarified after a question from Commissioner Michael Foster, however, that this applies to all conversations on county-issued devices, but not all conversations on personal ones.
“We just wanted elected officials and the commission to be aware that it may be subject to open records,” Frank said.
“I’m still a dinosaur,” she added, explaining she intends to use artificial intelligence but hasn’t yet.