The US Patent and Trademark Office banned the use of the generator. artificial intelligence last year, citing security concerns with the technology as well as the propensity for some devices to exhibit “bias, unpredictability and malicious behavior,” according to an April 2023 internal guidance memo obtained by WIRED through a public records request. For any purpose. USPTO Chief Information Officer Jamie Holcombe wrote that the office is “committed to advancing innovation within our agency” but is still “working to bring these capabilities to the office in a responsible manner.”
USPTO Press Secretary Paul Fucito clarified to WIRED that employees can use “state-of-the-art generative AI models” at work — but only inside the agency's internal testing environment. “USPTO innovators are now using the AI Lab to better understand the capabilities and limitations of generic AI and to prototype AI-powered solutions for critical business needs,” Fucito wrote in an email.
Outside of testing environments, USPTO employees are barred from relying on AI programs like OpenAI chatgpt Or Anthropic's cloud for work tasks. Last year's guidance memorandum bans the use of any output from the tool, including images and videos generated by AI. But patent office staff can use some approved AI programs, as if they Within the Agency's own public database to view registered patents and patent applications. Earlier this year, the USPTO approved $75 million contract Work with Accenture Federal Services to update its patent database with advanced AI-powered search features.
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, an agency within the Department of Commerce, is in charge of protecting inventors, granting patents, and registering trademarks. According to the USPTO, it also “advises the President of the United States, the Secretary of Commerce, and U.S. government agencies on intellectual property (IP) policy, protection, and enforcement.” website,
At an event sponsored by Google in 2023, Holcombe, author of the guidance memo, said government bureaucracy Makes it difficult for the public sector to use new technologies. “A lot of what we do in government is pretty silly when you compare it to the business world, isn't it?” He said. Holcombe specifically cited cumbersome budget, procurement and compliance processes, arguing that they hinder the government's ability to rapidly adopt innovations such as artificial intelligence.
The USPTO is not the only government agency that has banned employers from using generative AI for at least some purposes. Earlier this year, the National Archives and Records Administration Use of ChatGPT has been banned 404 on government-issued laptops, according to the media. But soon after, the National Archives hosted an internal presentation employees encouraged to “think” [Google’s] Gemini as a co-worker.” During the meeting, some archivists reportedly expressed concerns about the accuracy of generative AI. Next month, the National Archives plans to release a new public chatbot to access archival records developed with Google's technology.
Other US government agencies are using or avoiding generative AI in different ways. National Aeronautics and Space AdministrationFor example, the use of AI chatbots for sensitive data is specifically banned. However, NASA decided use with Techniques for writing code and summarizing research. The agency also announced last week that it is working with Microsoft on an AI chatbot aggregate satellite data To make it easily searchable. That tool is currently only available to NASA scientists and researchers, but the goal is to “democratize access to data that exists in space.”