AustraliaPublic sector2023–2024Department of Families, Fairness and Housing (Victoria)
Child protection worker's use of ChatGPT for a court report
Victoria privacy regulator orders child protection staff off generative AI in 2024 after ChatGPT-drafted court report
Problem
A child protection worker used ChatGPT to draft a protection application report for court. The output described a sex doll that the child's father had reportedly used as a strength of the parents' efforts.
Approach
The Office of the Victorian Information Commissioner ordered the department to ban staff from using the tool; an opposition MP cited a 24 September 2024 deadline for child protection staff. The department found the worker may have used ChatGPT in about 100 other documents, and nearly 900 staff visited the ChatGPT site between July and December 2023.
Results
Takeaway
The minister told parliament that OVIC's recommendations were being implemented and that AI tools remain in use elsewhere in the department. She did not guarantee that all affected documents had been identified.
Categories
- Size
- Large enterprise
- Industry
- Public sector
- Business function
- Internal work and knowledge management
- Innovation type
- Process innovation
- AI technology
- Generative AI
- Adoption
- Off-the-shelf tool or platform
- Evidence
- Company's own claim
Sources
Source summaries
Citing the Guardian, Futurism reported that the worker used ChatGPT for a court report and may have used it in roughly 100 other documents. OVIC ordered the department to ban staff from using the tool. The worker had left the department.
A member of parliament asked whether the department had complied with OVIC's direction on generative AI. The Minister said the department referred the matter itself and is implementing OVIC's recommendations.
Full details are in the original sources.
