Dalton Board Reviews Draft AI, Social Media Policies
DALTON, Mass. — Artificial intelligence is becoming a topic of discussion at several governmental agencies across the state, and has now come before the Select Board.
The board reviewed draft policies on artificial intelligence and social media usage at its Monday meeting. No vote was taken, as the drafts will first be reviewed by the town's attorney.
During the discussion, questions arose about clarifying vague language and understanding what state law permits regarding free speech on social media. These concerns will be reviewed by town counsel.
The artificial intelligence policy aims to set clear standards guiding town employees, officials, and departments to use AI tools responsibly, legally, and securely.
The policy emphasizes that AI tools can assist, not replace, professional judgment for tasks including drafting preliminary documents such as memos, policies, and communications; summarizing public documents; providing research assistance; organizing and analyzing data; transcribing public meetings; and translation services.
"The basic concept is you never want to take what's generated at face value without checking," Town Manager Eric Anderson said.
The personnel using the generative "artificial intelligence" tool are required to review it to ensure the content is accurate, he said.
The state has doubled down on the use of AI in the workplace and has gotten the enterprise version of Chat GPT so every state employee has access to it and is encouraged to use it, Anderson said.
The reality of today is that AI is commonly used as an advanced search or editing tool but the real problem is sometimes the data is "utterly incorrect" and unsupported, he said.
"While it may be used in drafting things, ultimately, if it's a legal document, it gets reviewed by the town's attorney. If it's another document, it gets reviewed by the person who created it," Anderson said.
"It's designed to be a tool, not the end-all-be-all. And I think as long as we treat it that way, we'll be in good shape."
Executive Assistant Lori Venezia will also be attending AI training, so will act as the town's "AI czar," he said.
A question was raised about whether elected officials will be subject to this policy. According to the Massachusetts Municipal Association's Select Board handbook, board members have "quite a bit of latitude and authority as individuals on this board to act as we see fit," said Antonio "Tony" Pagliarulo.
While that is the case, it is hoped that in this instance they will choose to follow the guidelines, even if they are not held to the same standard as town employees, Pagliarulo said.
"I think we should be held to a higher standard than our employees to be honest with you," Chair Robert Bishop said.
Currently, the town does not have a social media policy but there are town departments or agencies that do have pages, including the library and Council on Aging.
The Police Department also has one but as a public safety entity has to abide by stricter state social media regulations than other town accounts, Anderson said.
The purpose of the policy is to maintain official social media accounts to provide accurate and timely information to residents and the public.
The policy would set constitutionally compliant standards for the use of official town accounts, public participation, viewpoint-neutral moderation and content removal, and adherence to state law.
The town manager would act as the moderator of the accounts.
The policy says the town cannot remove or restrict speech solely because it criticizes, disagrees with, or opposes officials, employees, policies, or actions.
According to the draft policy, the town is permitted to hide, remove, or restrict content that has true threats or incitement, obscenity, harassment or targeted abuse, defamation, spam and commercial promotion, confidential or legally protected information, impersonation, clearly unrelated content when topic-limited, and is a violation of law or platform terms.
Pagliarulo asked if verifiably false statements could be included on the list. Anderson said he is not sure if this would conflict with First Amendment rights.
"We're trying with this to stick to exactly what we have a constitutional right to restrict and not stray over the line. At least that's what the goal in writing this," he said.
Although the town may not have the right to remove the statement, a comment can be made correcting it within the post, Anderson said.
It was mentioned during the discussion that a town chose to remove all comments on all its social media pages making it one-way communication. Both of the county's cities allow likes and shares but no comments on their Facebook pages.
"Social media in many ways functions as two-way communication and when you make it one-way communication most people stop viewing it," Anderson said.
"So, the point of having a social media account kind of goes away if you're not going to allow any dialogue on it."
Select Board member Marc Strout also said that if it becomes needed down the line, there is a service that will archive everything from official town social media sites, but he is not sure of the cost.
Tags: artificial intelligence, social media,
