The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) has formalized an internal artificial intelligence policy aimed at governing the use of emerging technologies across its workforce.
TPWD’s policies are built around the goal of leveraging AI to improve productivity and efficiency while maintaining compliance with state IT security and privacy laws. We define artificial intelligence broadly, with a particular focus on generative AI tools such as chatbots, text summarizers, and image generators. Employees are allowed to use approved AI tools for tasks such as creating internal documents, summarizing content, and assisting with code development, subject to established approval and usage protocols.
The department’s IT department (ITD) is responsible for managing policies and approving AI tools and use cases. Employees must request approval for the use of AI, and ITD maintains a list of approved tools. High-risk use cases, such as those involving sensitive data, public communications, and policy-making, require a high degree of scrutiny. The use of AI to interpret laws, make personnel decisions, or generate potentially misleading content is expressly prohibited.
TPWD’s policies focus on governance and risk classification, as well as training and user accountability. All staff using AI must be trained and are responsible for validating the accuracy of the output produced by AI. Employees are also required to ensure that sensitive or personally identifiable information is not entered into AI tools without explicit permission.
TPWD’s AI policy took effect in early November. The department’s internal approach comes as the Texas Department of Information Resources moves forward with developing a proposed statewide AI ethics code. The proposal outlines seven fundamental principles for the use of AI in government, including fairness, transparency, and accountability.
This story first appeared in Industry Insider — Texaspart of e.Republic; government technology Parent company.
