DHS launches internal GenAI chatbot to leverage non-public data

The Homeland Security Department has launched an artificial intelligence-powered chatbot to help support its workforce, according to a Tuesday announcement from the agency.

Michael Boyce, Director of the DHS AI Corps, said in a blog post that the new tool — dubbed DHSChat — is “now available to all the roughly 19,000 employees at DHS headquarters and select pilot users across ten operating agencies.”

According to Boyce, DHSChat utilizes the same underlying capabilities as other commercial generative AI tools, such as ChatGPT, but was developed internally and operates within a closed, secure environment. 

“With this new tool, thousands of employees will be able to leverage generative AI capabilities safely and securely using non-public data,” Boyce wrote, adding that “in the future, we hope to create a secure internal knowledge hub, which staff can query for information about DHS policies, data and other internal information.”

He also noted that DHSChat was developed in collaboration with “cloud, cybersecurity, privacy, civil rights and civil liberties experts across the department” to ensure that it met responsible safety guardrails. 

Last year, DHS began allowing its employees to use GenAI tools to process publicly available information. Boyce said that early introduction to the emerging capabilities — as well as the department’s launch of several AI pilots and release of an AI roadmap — helped lay the groundwork for DHSChat’s rollout.

As the department developed the chatbot, Boyce said it also took steps to familiarize personnel with using and understanding AI technologies. 

This included giving workers access to GenAI tools and providing training sessions that allowed them to experiment with the capabilities and ask questions about their use. He noted that it was also important for the department to highlight both expected and unexpected outcomes from using the tools so that workers were familiar with their benefits and potential downsides. 

“DHSChat builds on the department’s year-long effort to empower employees to take advantage of commercially available generative AI,” Boyce wrote.

DHS has taken a leading role across government when it comes to embracing AI capabilities. The department was the first agency to issue an AI roadmap in response to President Joe Biden’s October 2023 executive order on the safe and secure use of AI, which established governmentwide guardrails around the adoption of the emerging capabilities.

The DHS AI Corps, which Boyce leads, is also an effort to deploy trained technologists across the department to help with various modernization initiatives. The corps is modeled on the White House’s U.S. Digital Service and is looking to hire 50 specialists before the end of the year. 

DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in a statement that the launch of DHSChat and the department’s broader adoption of GenAI capabilities are “empowering our extraordinary workforce to deliver more effectively and efficiently for the American people.”

“This cutting-edge tool will help men and women across DHS draft vital reports, summarize critical information, develop new software, streamline administrative tasks and much more,” Mayorkas added. “Our department is committed to embracing innovative new technologies like GenAI in a safe, secure and responsible way, all while maintaining the highest standards of security and protecting civil rights, civil liberties and privacy.”