Lee County Commission reviews draft AI-use policy, plans staff training

The Lee County Commission at its March 26 work session heard an initial proposal from the county IT director to adopt AI-use policies for staff and to provide training on acceptable use and data protections.

S6, the IT director, told the commission that draft policies in the meeting packet draw on recommendations from the National Institute of Standards and Technology and include "common-sense" restrictions on how employees use AI tools. "As y'all know, it's a rapidly expanding technology... we're trying to make sure that our people use it appropriately," S6 said.

Commissioners raised concerns about data privacy and the potential for sensitive information to be absorbed into AI models. "Anything you put inside of it is there forever," said S3, describing a main risk of using public-facing AI. S4 and other commissioners asked whether county staff might inadvertently upload private or county-sensitive documents while seeking assistance, which could expose those data to model training.

S7 asked about the difference between open and closed models and whether some products retain inputs to "learn" from them; S7 said closed systems that do not retain user inputs would be preferable for county work. S6 responded that the proposed policies would emphasize avoiding uploading sensitive information and that additional verbiage will be developed and returned to the commission in a future meeting.

The IT director also said staff will arrange training sessions for employees on safe and effective AI use. The proposal as discussed at the work session was a starting point; S6 described it as a "jumping-off place" and indicated the county will expand policy language and training as the technology and use cases evolve.

Next steps: staff will draft more detailed policy language and schedule training; the commission did not take a formal vote on the draft during this work session.