vision
CDC staff and public health agencies across the country take advantage of the abundant opportunities offered by AI by safely and securely applying the tools available to AI.
As an AI leader, the CDC wants to ensure that all staff can use AI responsibly and develop dynamic partnerships across industry, academia, and other federal agencies, as well as state, tribal, local and territorial public health agencies. By embracing the transformational power of AI, we are committed to creating a healthier future and improving the lives of all Americans.
Important Terminology
artificial intelligence (AI) A machine-based system that allows you to make predictions, recommendations, or decisions that affect your real or virtual environment for a particular set of human-defined objectives. AI systems use machine-based and human-based inputs to perceive real and virtual environments. Such recognition abstracts into the model through analysis in an automated way. Use model inference to develop information or action options. (15 USC 9401 (3)).
Machine Learning (ML) Means the application of artificial intelligence, characterized by providing the system with the ability to automatically learn and improve based on data and experience. (15 USC 9401 (3)).
CDC's AI Innovation
Proven impact
- Became the first federal agency to deploy Geneai chatbots to all staff, $3.7 millionEstimates of labor costs saved to date 527% return on investment.
- It served as a source of Genai guidance for over 30 federal agencies.
- We have generated 55 AI solutions for challenges or use cases that demonstrate the power of AI in preventing outbreaks and improving operational efficiency. (See the annual HHS AI Use Case Inventory. )
- We have developed AI Accelerator. This is an internal program dedicated to operating and scaling AI/ML technology to solve complex public health problems.
AI/ML Use Cases
CDC uses AI to provide solutions to address specific challenges known as use cases. CDC maintains AI use cases inventory through its annual HHS AI use case inventoryalignment with M-25-21ensuring effective use of AI in public health.
Analyzing grant reports using AI
Challenge: Reviewing 4,500 quarterly reports from recipients of the National Grant Program is a time-collecting process and requires manual extraction of key insights from thousands of pages of unstructured text and data.
Solved: The CDC Programme Team deployed AI-powered tools (CDC chatbots) using Microsoft's Azure Openai and Azure AI search to automatically min and analyze reports, accelerate interpretation, and improve report accuracy.
Impact: It enabled faster, more comprehensive analysis while improving report quality, reducing manual effort with an estimated 5,500 working hours and saving $500,000 in labor costs.
Detect cooling towers during Legionnaire disease outbreaks
Challenge: Cooling Tower Identification – Potential Sources Legionnaira Bacteria – While important during Legionnaire diseases, long manual satellite image evaluations have traditionally been required.
Solved: Analyze satellite images using AI to automatically detect cooling towers in affected areas, allowing for quick and accurate identification of potential sources.
Impact: Saves more than 280 hours a year during the survey, helping to strengthen public health response efforts, mitigate the spread of Legionnaire diseases, and save lives by enabling faster interventions.
Analyze news articles to support outbreak responses
Challenge: Manual collection and tagging of news data limits situational awareness of public health event monitoring.
Solved: Use AI to automate intake, classification and summarization of thousands of news articles, providing rapid and scalable support for case-based and event-based surveillance.
Impact: Approximately 8,000 articles are processed per day, improving situational awareness by accelerating outbreak detection and increasing the CDC's ability to monitor potential health threats.
Examples of CDC programs currently using AI
National Syndrome Surveillance Program
Using AI: The National Syndromic Surveillance program uses AI to detect outbreaks and monitor health trends using real-time analysis of patient symptom data from the emergency department. Machine learning algorithms can help identify patterns that may indicate public health threats and disease trends.
result: Improved outbreak detection, including faster response times and improved situational awareness in public health emergencies.
Full Sate
Using AI: Some prediction teams submitting to Flusight use AI and ML to predict flu (or influenza) activity in the US. These approaches can combine data from several sources, such as historical influenza data and social media trends.
result: More accurate influenza predictions can help public health officials, healthcare providers, and organizations plan better for the future and inform their messages about the expected increase in flu.
How AI supports CDC's public health data strategy
Launched in 2023 and updated annually with new milestones, CDC's Public Health Data Strategy (PHDS) supports the exchange of Swift, Secure, and comprehensive health data. Agents will define and extend shared AI capabilities within data platforms in 2025, leveraging insights from 2024 applications.
AI plays a key role in accelerating your PhD and strengthens all of the following milestones.
- Supports response preparation by optimizing exchanges of important health data.
- It enables rapid analysis of vast datasets, including images, audio, free text, and genomic information.
- Identify relationships between health data that traditional methods may be overlooked.
Build the AI Ready workforce
ai accelerator (aix)
CDC's AIX program promotes the operation and scaling of AI/ML technology for enterprise use and the use of AI/ML across agencies.
The program prioritizes use cases that are important for public health and ensures that AIX efforts are in line with CDC missions and goals. AIX is committed to creating secure and reliable AI/ML solutions while promoting innovative co-frameworks.
AI Community of Practice (COP)
CDC's AI COP brings together AI experts, enthusiasts and practitioners with AI to share best practices and lessons learned with AI. The sessions offer collaboration opportunities with presentations from internal teams and external partners.
In 2024, CDC's AI COP led monthly sessions with over 2,200 members, including “CDC Chatbot 101”, “Prompt Engineering” and “Data Science Up Skills Program.”
Work with partners to understand your needs and support innovation
The CDC works with public and private partners to promote AI adoption and support innovation in this field.
Partnerships with Public Health and Academic Communities
To understand the needs of our national, tribal, local, and territorial (STLT) public health agencies, the CDC partnered with the CDC Foundation to assess perceptions, adoption, and concerns regarding the use of AI/ML tools in healthcare institutions. It turns out that STLT is looking for CDC guidance in two main areas.
- Specific regions where AI can enhance public health operations.
- Establish strategies to ensure that AI is deployed responsibly and safely.
Through collaboration with academic partners and state public health partners, the CDC supports innovation in public health data sharing. we:
- Optimize analysis functions – Decompose data silos for more effective insights and decision-making.
- Scaling AI with emergency resolutionPonce – Connect fragmented data tools to improve scalability in critical situations.
- Improved public health surveillance – How to track exposure and advance ways to assess the health of vulnerable communities.
- Supports workforce preparation – Make sure your CDC personnel are equipped to address public health challenges using AI solutions.
Partnership with private industry
Leveraging advances in AI technology holds immeasurable promises to accelerate data-driven insights in public health. The CDC is committed to reviewing and integrating new technologies regularly to emerge to ensure timely, evidence-based insights into public health decision-making while maintaining robust human surveillance, security, and research excellence.
AI/ML Authorities and Guidance
The White House and the Bureau of Management and Budget outline the authorities, policies, and guidance for the use of AI that are guiding the CDC's AI efforts. The CDC will continue to monitor and coordinate efforts from the HHS, the White House or other relevant authorities to reflect new or updated directions.
Federal authorities, policies, and guidance
White House
