Right now, digital technologies and artificial intelligence will transform the way our government operates and will make government services more cost effective, efficient and easy to use.

Our company promotes emerging technology that helps the government automate and digitize the tools that citizens use to interact with the government and improve experience citizens have in those interactions. We want government services that are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. We want services that help people at a time when they need help the most.

For the past ten years, we’ve been following the evolution of technology in the public benefits space. We’ve watched the state of Pennsylvania move from paper applications to apply for food stamps to web based applications and most recently to mobile applications.

So how do we bridge the gap from where we are to where we want to be?

On the technology side, Gov AI is currently developing a product that allows citizens to be screened and to apply for food stamps through a simplified web based interface. And in the next phase of our project, we are bringing that information to create a voice user interface. Our focus is to create a natural interaction between citizens and technology to create an experience that is both emotionally and artificially intelligent; to create an experience that is more compassionate, accurate and that has the citizen at its core. We envision our product being applied to all public benefits including but not limited to: social security, unemployment, SNAP, medical assistance, CHIP, school meals.

As technology develops, we envision a public benefits ecosystem where all benefits are connected. Currently citizens have to provide the same documentation to the government when applying to different agencies. We want government agency systems to share that information and take that barrier off of the citizen. Looking into the future, our user interface will be able to both search and learn from that ecosystem. In order for this high level systems structure to exist, we also need to change public policy.

Right now, in the boardrooms of companies in Silicon Valley (and now in Pittsburgh), a small group of people are making technology decisions that will shape the lives of billions of people without any democratic oversight or democratic engagement. We must do better. Gov AI wants to help create and be part of diverse and inclusive AI policy councils that connect government officials and technology leaders, thought leaders, behavioral psychologists and citizens to create values and principles as artificial intelligence develops.

The decisions we make now have to be in the best interest of humans.

As Pittsburgh positions itself as a leader in artificial intelligence, and large tech companies move into our area, we believe that we must adopt legislation in the state of Pennsylvania that outlines basic principles and values that should apply to the development of artificial intelligence.