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Artificial intelligence is axing outdated terms in Ohio’s regulatory code
By: Sarah Donaldson | Statehouse News Bureau
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COLUMBUS, Ohio (Statehouse News Bureau) — Artificial intelligence is playing a part in paring down Ohio’s state laws and regulations, so far having eliminated more than two million words from the Ohio Revised Code.
“The regulatory code is something like 15 million words,” Husted said. “No one person can read through that, nobody can possibly digest all of this, but an AI tool can do it in minutes.”
The effort is under the states Common Sense Initiative, established by Gov. Mike DeWine and Husted early in their administration to make Ohio friendlier to businesses by eliminating what the state sees as regulatory obstacles.
Husted likens the AI program itself to a more advanced version of something like a grammar checker, since it’s human-prompted. The tool was built to learn the Ohio Revised Code’s kinks as it goes, though.
Research suggests that a majority of people are frightened by AI—for different reasons, including that it could cause job loss. In this situation, Husted said artificial intelligence is collaborative, rather than substitutive.
“This is work that nobody was doing,” Husted said. “It really changes attitudes about this whole conversation. Remember, people talk about the legislature, ‘Well, hey, we want to eliminate two rules for every new one we create,’ but then they keep passing laws, and then every law requires a new regulation. I liken it to saying you owned a house for 200 years and it needs a cleaning.”
With the legislature’s green light, Husted said the tool could cut millions more words by the next budget cycle.