Wasatch County has approved parameters for employees using artificial intelligence, but IT Director Don Wood said he still wants employees to explore and use the technology.
The Wasatch County Council approved the new AI policy on Wednesday. Wood said it ensures employees use AI systems responsibly.
“The guiding principles behind this policy are basically to encourage our employees to learn, use and explore,” Wood said. “To protect privacy, to maintain human accountability and work toward fairness and transparency.”
Part of the policy is worded to encourage employees to explore AI.
“We do want them to use AI,” Wood said. “AI is not going away. It’s going to be something that could be a boon for us, provided we do it responsibly.”
Some county councilors have already used AI to their advantage. County Councilor Erik Rowland used AI to analyze the Utah Department of Transportation’s draft environmental impact statement, which is nine chapters and over 450 pages long. Then, he cross-referenced the information with county ordinances.
However, Rowland did not use AI to write the actual public comment the County Council submitted to UDOT.
Human approval and review are key. AI should never have the final say, Wood said. He said there must always be a “human in the loop.”
“We would never want, at least at this time, to ever have AI make decisions without any human interaction and such,” Wood said. “We do put that in (the policy) to make sure to put our employees on notice that, look, you can use it, but you can’t claim that the dog ate your homework. You have to own it.”
Wood said the county already has a dedicated account with Microsoft Copilot and that officials reached out to ChatGPT from OpenAI with no response.
Rowland said the policy is necessary and may need to be updated over time.
“The whole landscape changes day to day. Like what AI was last week is different than this week,” Rowland said. “We may think we know what the best practice is today, but it might change next week.”
The hope, Wood said, is that the policy will be timeless in its application. Some regulations, like ensuring United States-based software, will always be required.
“It wouldn’t surprise me if we’re back in six months, making tweaks to some of these things and such,” Wood said.
But he added that there has been a change in opinion about AI use.
“A year ago, from my own perspective, there was a fear about AI,” Wood said. “I’m feeling much, much better. … I can see where this is going to fit, and we’re starting to feel a lot more confident.”
The County Council unanimously approved the policy on Wednesday. The County Council’s decision follows approval of AI policies by Midway City and Heber City.