AI Tools Help Tech-Savvy Hill Aides Speed Tedious Work (1)

Congress—steeped in tradition, resistant to change, and notoriously slow to modernize—is moving to accept the inexorable: the artificial intelligence boom.

A growing crop of technology-savvy staffers is embracing AI, experimenting with tools ranging from chatbots to image generators to automated transcription and scheduling services. Civic tech nonprofits, think tanks, and congressional staff associations are raising awareness and educating staff on AI’s benefits and best practices. The House’s Chief Administrative Officer has issued lengthy internal guidelines on authorized tools and their safe and responsible use. The Senate has also weighed in.

Congressional aides are using the tools to help draft communications, generate bill titles, fulfill administrative tasks, research topics, and summarize reports.

The effects of AI’s presence are already being felt. Interested staffers say the tech has sparked their creativity, increased their efficiency, and saved them time during their typically overloaded workdays. If harnessed widely and effectively, AI could reshape the legislative branch and help Congress better serve Americans, according to Capitol Hill staffers and policy experts.

“My hope is, personally, that it’ll just become another tool that we use every day—the way that we use Google Workspace or Slack or Teams,” said Eric Jones, communications director for the Democratic Digital Communications Staff Association. The group hosted an AI panel this summer at their annual Digital Day, which boasted more than 200 registrants.

“We’ll get to the point where the best staffers” will be those “who know how to use these AI tools,” added Jones. “They’re going to be desirable.”

AI Use, Initiatives

Taylor Swift’s new album dropped and the House Agriculture Committee’s Republican communications aides wanted to blend pop culture into their next social media post to help grow their audience and generate buzz. They consulted OpenAI‘s ChatGPT, which delivered clever and concise language they shared with their nearly 28,000 followers on X, performing better than their usual posts and saving them time, a committee aide told Bloomberg Government on the condition of anonymity to speak candidly.

The House Agriculture Committee’s Republican communications team used ChatGPT to help craft a message riffing on Taylor Swift lyrics after the artist’s new album dropped.

Credit: X/House Committee on Agriculture Republicans

Experimentation with AI comes as Congress grapples with the social, ethical, and legal concerns posed by the tech and its potential to transform sectors like healthcare and energy. Lawmakers say they want to set rules that promote the industry while safeguarding Americans from harm.

Increased adoption on the Hill not only can yield efficiency but also produce more informed and constructive AI policymaking, according to Aubrey Wilson, director of government innovation at PopVox Foundation, which has offered AI training for congressional offices.

“That’s a big win for a modern Congress, or any modern legislature, to respond to emerging technology like that,” said Wilson, a former Committee on House Administration staffer.

Efforts have ramped up. In October, a group of staffers formed a new bipartisan, bicameral association dedicated to keeping staff informed on the latest AI developments. The staff association, with 112 members now and counting, plans to host experts from academia, industry, civil society, and other areas for panels, demo days, and workshops.

“Understanding new AI technologies and keeping abreast of developments in this rapidly evolving field is essential for crafting responsible policy,” Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.), one of the sponsors of the staff initiative, said in a statement.

Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.) this year hired a congressional AI specialist, a first-of-its-kind role tasked with identifying and building AI-powered tools to revamp and modernize Hill workflows and aid AI policy discussions.

Colin Raby, a Louisiana State University graduate, has since built experimental products that save staff time and improve their work quality, he said. Among them: Custom GPTs of a federal legislative expert and a calendar-event generator for public use. He’s also made internal office tools, such as a virtual expert that can pull information about the congressman to help inform constituent responses. At the annual congressional hackathon in September, Raby unveiled a tool that he said can create a list of daily press clips in minutes, rather than hours. He aims to release the public version by this week.

Staffers are initially “skeptical” about AI but turn “very positive” once they learn about its ability to speed up tedious, administrative tasks, and are now asking for more tools, according to Raby, whose tenure was extended through February to serve on the House Select Committee on China.

Louisiana State University graduate Colin Raby has built experimental products to save congressional staff time, including custom GPTs of a federal legislative expert and a calendar-event generator for public use.

Credit: Colin Raby/Congressional Hackathon 2024

Scattered Adoption

Yet so far, the use of AI tools has been piecemeal. Deploying the tech is at the discretion of each member, with some welcoming and others rejecting it. Many curious staffers say they’ve been in the dark about AI’s adoption and the rules of the road, and some say that’s led to covert use because of fears of retaliation or perceptions of laziness and incompetence.

“There’s a stigma about it—that it won’t be seen as a tool but a replacement,” said Kristina Aleksander, communications director for Rep. Don Davis (D-N.C.), and former congressional digital fellow. Although AI is more of an assistant and not “anywhere near as developed to be a replacement anytime soon.”

Several staffers say they have adopted certain AI uses, such as task automation tools, and opted against others, like chatbots. Two Senate Republican communications aides, granted anonymity to speak candidly, said they understand the voices and messaging styles of their respective bosses better than a generic, error-prone chatbot would, and are therefore reluctant to engage with it.

The technology can produce inaccuracies, but it’s evolving and can be helpful as long as there’s a human in the loop, said one House Republican communications staffer, who uses ChatGPT for brainstorming ideas during bouts of writer’s block.

A lack of knowledge can stop staff from using the tech effectively, Raby warns. He created a 13-page prompt engineering guide to help staff generate better outputs from large language models.

Enthusiasts say congressional leaders and chiefs of staff should work to dispel myths about AI. More educational resources, training, and technical experts on the Hill could encourage greater use.

“It would be great to see, institutionally, the House and Senate” have “a more concerted effort,” said Luke Hogg, director of policy and outreach at the Foundation for American Innovation, another organization that’s offered AI guidance to Hill staff. “That needs to come from leadership.”

Congress has long faced pressure to modernize and that demand will continue. AI is widely believed to offer numerous opportunities that staff will be forced to take.

Staffers have naturally conformed to a digital-first environment because of the rise of social media, the Covid-19 pandemic, among several other shifts, according to Michael Suchecki, former creative director for Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.) and former congressional digital fellow.

“I have no doubt that in five or 10 years, the vast majority of Capitol Hill will have a use for AI, if not be reliant on it,” Suchecki said.