If you’ve perused a sensitive government document dump in recent years, it’s hard to miss the black-box redactions that cover up pieces of classified or private information. While agencies usually apply these redactions manually, the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) now plans to use AI tools to speed up the process, The Washington Postreports,citing descriptions spotted in the federal AI Use Case Inventory on GitHub.
The inventory was established under the first Trump administration to increase transparency about AI tools used by the government. In January, a new entry said DHS would use AI tools to redact documents requested under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).
The AI tools won’t have the final say on which portions are marked; they can only recommend which words or lines DHS officers should redact. Humans can then review the suggestions and “ensure that the requester is getting the accurate and complete information requested,” an agency spokesperson tells the Post.
Federal agencies received nearly 1.7 million FOIA requests last year. By the end of this month, the DHS, in particular, will use its AI tools to redact more than 10%, or up to 140,000, of the FOIA submissions it has already received, the spokesperson said.
US Customs and Border Protection (CBP), which also falls under DHS, will use Google’s AI and machine learning tools, the report adds. The Post also found descriptions of AI tools that other departments plan to use, including a Microsoft tool at the Interior Department and a video-redaction tool, called aiWARE, at the Justice Department.
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The move could raise many eyebrows, given how inaccurate AI tools can sometimes be. A few AI tools have also shown a tendency to go rogue, while one was recently caught sharing a user’s address without their consent.
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Jibin is a tech news writer based out of Ahmedabad, India. Previously, he served as the editor of iGeeksBlog and is a self-proclaimed tech enthusiast who loves breaking down complex information for a broader audience.
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