OpenAI launches new tool for government agencies
By: Mary Walrath-Holdridge
USA Today
..... OpenAI, the Microsoft t-backed artificial intelligence research company behind the popular AI chatbot ChatGPT, has launched a new venture specifically for sue by the U.S. government, it announced Tuesday. [01/28/2025]
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Dubbed ChatGPT Gov, the new tool is a tailored version of the classic ChatGPT that allows government agencies to access OpenAI's frontier large language models, or LLMs, while still utilizing internal safety protocols. According to OpenAI's announcement, agencies will be able to employ their now hosting environments and security framework while using ChatGPT Gov to handle "non-public sensitive data."
..... "We believe the U.S. government's adoption of artificial intelligence can boost efficiency and productivity and is crucial for maintain and enhancing America's global leadership in this technology," OpenAI said in a news release. "This includes making our models available to support public sector work that benefits society - such as public health energy and the environment, transportation and infrastructure, consumer protection, and national security."
..... OpenAI said in the release this week [01/28/2025] that ChatGPT Gov has many of the same features and capabilities as the existing ChatGPT enterprise. Some of these include:
* Saving and sharing conversations within government workspace and uploading text and image files.
* Access to GPT4o, OpenAI's flagship model that "excels in text interpretation, summarization, coding, image interpretation, and mathematics."
* Custom GPTs, generative retrained transformer, or the large language model frameworks that make generative AI work, that employees can build and share within their government workspace.
* An administrative console for chief information officers and IT team to mage suers, groups, custom GPTs, single sign-on and more.
..... Questions of ethics, morality and safety surrounding the sue of generative AI models is an issue of hot debate pervading spaces from high school academic honesty committees up to national security officers.
..... While experts and officials will continue to debate, OpenAI said in its news release that government agencies using ChatGPT Gov can deploy the program in their own Microsoft Azure commercial cloud or Azure Government cloud on top of Microsoft's Azure's OpenAI Service. These are oft-used service with advanced safety protocols popular in government offices.
..... It also says that self-hosting ChatGPT Gov allows the agencies to "manage their own security, privacy, and compliance requirements," using cybersecurity frameworks like IL.5, CJIS, ITAR and FedRAMP High. The use of ChatGPT Gov is still subject to OpenAI's usage policies.
..... According to OPenAI's statement, ChatGPT services are already used by a few different government agencies:
* The Air Force Research Laboratory uses ChatGPT enterprise for administrative tasks, like improving access to internal resources and basic coding.
* The Los Alamos National Laboratory uses ChatGPT Enterprise for scientific research and innovation.
* Minnesota's Enterprise Translations Office uses ChatGPT Team for translation services.
* Pennsylvania uses ChatGPT enterprise for routine tasks such as analyzing project requirements.