Romania unveils Ion, the ‘world’s first’ A.I.-powered political aide – The Washington Post

“Ion is the first AI governmental adviser — we think — in the world,” said Sebastian Burduja, Romania’s minister of research, in a telephone interview Thursday. The bot, which was developed by his ministry, is in its “learning phase,” he said, inviting Romanians to teach it about their everyday concerns by posting about them on social media. “Ion will take all that information and will start to report results,” said Burduja, “which will be meant for the prime minister and designated members of the cabinet.”

“Romanians should be informed and explained how this AI tool selects important posts, and on what criteria. This should explained to the public,” Kris Shrishak, a technologist at the Irish Council for Civil Liberties, said in an interview Thursday. He pointed out that the tool might also elevate the concerns of citizens who are most active on social media, which would not necessarily make it representative.

Eventually, Ion’s engineers hope to teach it to proactively formulate policy proposals for government ministers to consider, a prospect that adds fuel to an emerging debate over the role of artificial intelligence in everyday life — and in democratic processes in particular.

As well as providing reports to politicians in writing, the bot speaks to them, too. It has a deep, male-like voice — although as Romanians send their thoughts and concerns to the machine through voice notes, officials hope that voice will evolve. Burduja said Ion’s AI software allows it to integrate thousands of audio submissions into a single Romanian accent — the basis for Ion’s final voice. “Through AI, a single voice of the nation will be heard,” Burduja said.

“Romanians can actually make their voices heard every day, and through artificial intelligence that voice can reach decision-makers in the best possible forum. It can inform better decisions … that are more appropriate for the needs of average Romanians,” Burduja said. Eventually, he hopes, it will be able to propose policies of its own — based on the submissions.

Many others responded to the bot negatively. “Read what the Romanians are saying here and tell your boss how much THEY love Prime Minister Dr. Ciuca and those in the government,” suggested one user — probably sarcastically — addressing the bot on Twitter.

As the use of AI technology to complete everyday functions grows more widespread, governments are racing to establish ethical protocols for their use in public sector decision-making processes — if permitted at all. One concern is that the algorithms underpinning the machines could start to reflect existing human biases, meaning that their outputs would also be tainted by bias. Another worry is that they could be vulnerable to hacking or spamming attacks.

Ion, Romanian authorities say, will be protected from spamming using “proof of human” technology. Burduja said the inbuilt technology will allow the machine to filter out automatically generated content, preventing it from inadvertently speaking to other machines and using the results to inform government policy.

“Make sure your model is fair, explainable, and you have a process for monitoring unexpected or biased outputs,” the official guidance goes on to suggest. It also recommends public officials hire an ethicist “to provide ethical judgments and assessments on the AI model’s inputs,” to ensure that the model does not produce biased policy, and that the algorithm is performing in line with “ethical considerations.”