CDC Plans to Issue Generative AI Guidance, Data Official Says

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is drafting a generative artificial intelligence guidance, as current government playbooks do not fully prescribe the specific steps each agency should take, a CDC official said. 

Speaking at AFCEA Bethesda’s Health IT Summit 2024, Travis Hoppe, CDC associate director for data science and analytics, disclosed that the agency is starting to identify and adopt the AI ways prescriptive to the CDC’s mission focused on public health. Hoppe also shared that the CDC is considering the use of model cards, tools promoting organizations’ transparency in generative AI use, FedScoop reported Wednesday. 

The information in the CDC model cards, which include the contents of an AI model and how it was made, will provide the qualitative and quantitative metrics for evaluating potential user risks, Hoppe explained. He also disclosed that the CDC has launched 15 generative AI pilot projects that it would like to assess on such benchmarks as security and safety of use within the agency. 

In the Department of Health and Human Services’ fiscal year 2023 inventory of newly reported AI use cases, the CDC indicated that it is searching for an AI tool to transcribe and evaluate cognitive interviews and surveys.