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Nevada has a new helper in its quest to plow through a backlog of unemployment claims: Google AI. Gizmodo<\/em> reports<\/a> that the initiative will task one of the company\u2019s cloud-based AI models with analyzing appeals hearing transcripts and suggesting whether cases should be approved. Welcome to the future, where a robot weighs in on whether you get the government money you requested.<\/p>\n The Nevada Independent<\/em> wrote<\/a> in June that the AI model, trained on the state\u2019s unemployment law and policies, will analyze transcripts of virtual appeals hearings. It will then spit out a ruling, which a state employee will review for mistakes and decide whether to honor.<\/p>\n It replaces the current Nevada Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation (DETR) process, which averages three hours for a real-life human to complete. Carl Stanfield, DETR\u2019s IT administrator, told the Nevada Independent<\/em> that Google\u2019s AI (which uses the company\u2019s Vertex cloud system<\/a>) can rule within five minutes. \u201cThe time saving is pretty phenomenal,\u201d Stanfield said.<\/p>\n It\u2019s easy to understand why Nevada would be eager to lean on the emerging tech. As recently as June, the state reportedly had a backlog of over 10,000 unprocessed appeals, about 1,500 of which were left over from the pandemic. And if the tech\u2019s reviews are accurate \u2014 or the human reviewers catch its mistakes \u2014\u00a0it could be an enormous timesaver.<\/p>\n However, there could be psychological pressure for the employees reviewing the cases to rubber-stamp the AI\u2019s conclusions. \u201cIf a robot\u2019s just handed you a recommendation and you just have to check a box and there\u2019s pressure to clear out a backlog, that\u2019s a little bit concerning,\u201d Michele Evermore, a former deputy director for unemployment modernization policy at the Department of Labor, told Gizmodo<\/em>.<\/p>\n Stanfield told Gizmodo<\/em> that a governance committee will meet weekly while the state is fine-tuning the model and quarterly after it goes live to monitor for hallucinations and bias<\/a>. The stakes could be high for claimants as the AI-powered system could affect their ability to appeal bogus decisions. \u201cIn cases that involve questions of fact, the district court cannot substitute its own judgment for the judgment of the appeal referee,\u201d Elizabeth Carmona, a senior attorney with Nevada Legal Services, told Gizmodo<\/em>. In other words, if the human reviewing the decision misses the AI\u2019s mistakes, a court may not have the legal standing to overturn it.<\/p>\n One Nevada politician put it a bit more bluntly. \u201cAre we out of our ever-loving minds?\u201d NV state senator Skip Daly (D-Reno) said to the Nevada Independent<\/em> this summer. \u201cI\u2019m just dubious of the whole concept of overreliance on algorithms and computers. I hope that we are cautious about it, and think before we just say, \u2018We got to be faster or better than the next guy.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n