How can Artificial Intelligence (AI) help evidence-based lawmaking?

Presented on 18/10/2024 at the OECD/SIGMA Regional conference on Parliaments and evidence-based lawmaking in the Western Balkans
Challenges and opportunities
17-18 October 2024
Italian Chamber of Deputies, Rome, Italy

1. A joint initiative of the OECD and the EU, principally financed by the EU.
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How can Artificial Intelligence (AI) help
evidence-based lawmaking?
FotiosFitsilis, Hellenic Parliament, Greece
Latest developments in applying AI in parliaments
18 October 2024
Italian Chamber of Deputies, Rome, Italy

2. A joint initiative of the OECD and the EU, principally financed by the EU.
Objective:
Tackle and frame open questions about parliamentary AI
•How is the AI situation in Western Balkan parliaments?
•Where to start?
•Which fields of application?
•Which priorities should be set?
•Technical solutions realistic or unrealistic?
Motives:
●AI-based tools & services gain momentum
●Emergence of Generative AI (ChatGPT)
●Introduction in public sector institutions & parliaments
●Broad call for regulation
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DALL·E 2, “motivated person“
Objective and motivation

3. A joint initiative of the OECD and the EU, principally financed by the EU.
Selected background work on the use of AI in parliaments
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Sources: Koryziset al. 2021, Leslie et al. 2021 and OECD 2022

4. A joint initiative of the OECD and the EU, principally financed by the EU.
The role of Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU): AI cases and support
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IPU’s survey instrument:
•Live document, continuously being updated
•About 60 real practical cases to date
•Facilitated via the IPU’s Center for Innovation in
Parliaments
Directions of AI use in parliaments:
●Document/legislation classification systems
●Transcription and translation
●Chatbots and supporting users
●Public engagement
●Bill drafting and amendments

5. A joint initiative of the OECD and the EU, principally financed by the EU.
What are the main ΑΙ applications that can be used in parliaments?
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AI-based
Process design
AI-based
Programming
Regulatory Impact
Assessment
Speeches &
press releases
Automated
announcements
Custom
event notifications
Parliamentary
control topics
Constituency work Electoral campaigns

6. A joint initiative of the OECD and the EU, principally financed by the EU.
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●Well-known example of Generative AI: ChatGPT
●Enormous spread since late 2022 but in development for a decade
●Huge potential as legal (drafting) assistants as well as for research and
evidence-generation tosupport lawmaking
●However, there are many challenges and issues to be addressed, such
as:
oSecurity aspects
oPrivacy considerations
oExistence of sufficient legal data
oApplication for Western Balkan languages
Generative AI as a major driver for lawmaking

7. A joint initiative of the OECD and the EU, principally financed by the EU.
AI within the lawmaking cycle
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•Huge potential for having
positive impact on the quality of
lawmaking at all stages
•AI technology evolving rapidly
Questions:
○Is it feasible and acceptable
at this stage?
○And under which
conditions?
Screening of
media reports &
judicial decisions
Assess citizens’
concerns &
prioritize topics
Consultation &
political debate
Regulatory Impact
Assessment
Rapid
development of
bills & regulations

8. A joint initiative of the OECD and the EU, principally financed by the EU.
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•The EC performed several studies since 2022
•Principle of Smart Functionalities (SFs)
•30+ AI applications in lawmaking identified
Structured approach to AI in lawmaking (EU level)
Selected priorities for AI uses most relevant for evidence-based lawmaking
Large Language Model (LLM) based legal text generation
Measure the impact of a legislative act
Automatically identify existing legislation relevant for the act under development
Context aware correct usage of Existing legal definitions
Detect obligations, rights, permissions, penalties

9. A joint initiative of the OECD and the EU, principally financed by the EU.
How to apply and localise AI in national parliaments?
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Steps:
•Brainstorming
•Evaluation
•Analysis and results
•Comparison
•Implementation
Parameters:
•Relevance of the AI application
•Priority of implementation
Examples →interactive parliamentary workshops(top priorities):
•Hellenic Parliament: March 2021 (Training & hiring of new staff in the IT department)
•National Congress of Argentina: August 2022 (Reliable voting systems [through AI
technologies] in plenary and committees)
•Canadian House of Commons: September 2023 (AI-based translation services)

10. A joint initiative of the OECD and the EU, principally financed by the EU.
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Approach
•Efficiency and risk mitigation
•How to do it? →Use of guidelines and principles
•Two main development workstreams for AI guidelines for parliaments
1. Guidelines on the introduction and use of AI in the parliamentary workspace
•Published in July 2024 as an open access document
•22 technical working group members (16 countries)
•Translation in several languages (maybe also in WB languages?)
2. IPU’s AI governance guidelines
•Planned for late 2024
•Initiated via IPU’s Center for Innovation in Parliaments
•Coordinated by the Brazilian Chamber of Deputies
Implementation planning

11. A joint initiative of the OECD and the EU, principally financed by the EU.
Starting point:
•Regulatory guidelines (scholars and practitioners)
•Corporate AI principles (IBM, Google, Microsoft, …)
•Organizational frameworks (EU, UNESCO, OECD, …)
Six sections/topics covered:
•Ethical principles
•Artificial General Intelligence
•Privacy & Security
•Governance & Oversight
•System Design & Operation
•Capacity Building & Education
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Dissecting the AI guidelines

12. A joint initiative of the OECD and the EU, principally financed by the EU.
●AI tech, particularly Generative AI, keeps advancing in terms
of reasoning capacities
●Visible trend towards integration of AI-based digital solutions
in lawmaking and e-Government
●Parliaments are no exception to this transformative wave
(selected examples in the next slide)
●Science and parliamentary practice have set out on a
preliminary path
●But still many implications and risks for the use of AI in
parliaments that require further investigation
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Where are we? Key facts and messages

13. A joint initiative of the OECD and the EU, principally financed by the EU.
Selected examples of AI use in EU parliaments
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•The Finnish Parliament(Committee for the Future) organised a
parliamentary hearing with an AI system
•Estonia has implemented speech-to-text technology in plenary and
committee meetings as well as subtitle generation during remote
plenary and committee meetings
•The Netherlandsalso uses AI for automatic speech-to-text
technology to transcribe audio into text to allow for more efficient
editing of these transcripts
•In Greece, the Hellenic Parliament is using speech-to-text
technology to produce parliamentary meeting minutes
•In Portugal, the Assembly of the Republic has been using speech-
to-text technology
•The European Parliament uses an AI-based text summarizerfor its
archive to reduce the original size of documents to be reviewed
•…and, of course, alsoItaly for bill classification, legal referencing to
European and Italian laws etc.

14. A joint initiative of the OECD and the EU, principally financed by the EU.
●Currently only a handful parliaments are adopting and using AI
●Information about actual AI use in the Western Balkan is limited
→Parliamentary colleagues from the Western Balkan are welcome to
share their experience and recent initiatives during this session
●Important to analyze existing international experience and examples to
identify and apply their own solutions
●There is a necessity for regular collaboration and exchange of
knowledge
●Leadership of international organisations, such as OECD and IPU, can
offer a more educated approach to the digital parliament of the future
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What’s next?

15. A joint initiative of the OECD and the EU, principally financed by the EU.
Thank you!
FotiosFitsilis
https://fitsilis.gr
[email protected]
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Q&A and discussion
The information and views set out in this presentation are only those of the
author and do not reflect the official opinion of the Hellenic Parliament