Ouray County IT said it will prepare a draft countywide artificial intelligence policy after a broad work-session discussion Aug. 27 about risks and uses of generative AI.

Jeff Bridal, IT manager, told commissioners the county had received a thorough example policy from Clear Creek County and that IT will adapt it: "We have that policy and we're gonna prepare a draft," Bridal said. He and other staff emphasized training, human review and limits on what data can be fed into outside AI systems.

Why it matters: Generative AI tools can speed routine tasks (summarizing long documents, drafting text, extracting meeting notes) but can also produce inaccurate or fabricated content. Staff stressed two recurring safeguards: check primary sources and require human review before AI-generated material is released.

Key details and staff recommendations:
- Containment: Bridal and IT staff recommended using Google Workspace's Gemini for county use because it keeps inputs and outputs inside the county's Google environment and does not add those inputs to public training datasets, according to staff. Bridal said, "through Google Workspace, we're guaranteed that that information stays within your county's ownership."
- Human review and source checking: Commissioners and staff agreed outputs from AI tools must be checked against primary sources and reviewed by a human before publication or official use; Lynn (commissioner) said she uses AI for summaries but always verifies the primary sources herself.
- Case-by-case vendor tools: Built-in AI tools in licensed products (for example, Zoom or Google's built-in assistants) can be acceptable if contract terms and data handling are reviewed. Staff said they will evaluate each vendor's license and data handling before approving in-office use.
- Risk areas: Staff flagged hallucination (fabricated citations or content), data-exfiltration risk when copying internal documents into external AI tools, deepfakes and weaponized large requests as risks that policy should address.

Decisions and next steps: IT will draft an AI policy modeled on Clear Creek County's example, review it with legal, and return it to the board for consideration. Bridal said IT is testing Gemini internally and plans to allow broader experimentation once the policy and controls are in place.

Ending: Commissioners urged prompt training and careful rollout; staff said they will watch the technology closely and bring a formal draft policy back to the board.