Congressional agencies report progress on AI adoption

Several legislative branch entities are leveraging voluntary federal guidance to help them develop and finalize their strategies for adopting artificial intelligence tools, according to a report released on Wednesday by the House Administration Committee.

Since September 2023, the panel has published a series of "flash reports" to provide updates on the use of the emerging technology in House offices and relevant agencies, including the Architect of the Capitol; the Government Publishing Office; the Chief Administrative Office; the Office of the Clerk; the Library of Congress; the United States Capitol Police; and the Smithsonian Institution.

In this latest report, the panel said it also identified two AI use cases around “casework and transcription services” and is currently in the process of “reaching out to every House-approved vendor in these spaces to share information and to better understand the vendor’s anticipated software roadmaps.”

The committee’s April AI report included a series of five formalized guardrails “intended to be applied to any AI tool or technology in use in the House.” 

These proposals were centered around human oversight and decision-making; clear and comprehensive policies; robust testing and evaluation; transparency and disclosure; and education and upskilling.

The committee said it used the intervening period between April and June to focus “on applying the House’s AI guardrails to the acquisitions process as an effective means of ensuring the responsible use of AI.”

Three of the seven agencies — U.S. Capitol Police, the Smithsonian and the Architect of the Capitol — were consulting the NIST AI risk management framework to develop their own approaches. The committee noted at the time that the Smithsonian “has been leveraging the NIST AI risk management framework” and conducts “ongoing assessments to integrate it into existing policies and practices.”

Wednesday’s review said that, since the last report, the Smithsonian has established a working group building off of this framework “to review and draft AI-related policies and guidance,” with its “preliminary outputs” expected some time in early fall and its “final deliverables” expected by the end of the year.

The Architect of the Capitol previously told the House committee that it was using NIST’s framework “as the basis of their governance assessment.” The agency has continued to assess this framework since April, particularly when it comes to developing “guidance on generative AI.” The committee also noted the agency “is working to establish a chief AI officer” and allocated funding for this new position in its fiscal year 2025 budget request.