ChatGPT, meet DHSChat: Homeland Security has a new AI bot

The Department of Homeland Security has built an artificial intelligence-based chatbot it’s calling DHSChat, the latest in a string of agency experimentations with generative AI.

DHSChat is designed as a chatbot meant for internal use within the agency, according to a press release shared Tuesday. The tool was developed by DHS’s AI Corps and its director, Michael Boyce, after employees experimented with commercial generative AI tools, including Claude and ChatGPT. 

In a statement, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said that the “cutting-edge tool” would help workers across DHS “draft vital reports, summarize critical information, develop new software, streamline administrative tasks, and much more. Our Department is committed to embracing innovative new technologies like GenAI in a safe, secure, and responsible way, all while maintaining the highest standards of security and protecting civil rights, civil liberties, and privacy.” 

The tool is similar to commercial tools but was made internally and operates in a secure environment, Boyce wrote in a blog post. In response to a FedScoop question, a spokesperson for the agency said that the chatbot leverages external large language models through an API. “Data from DHSChat is not used to train external models,” the spokesperson added.

The tool is now available to more than 19,000 workers at the agency’s headquarters, as well as in pilot form to 10 operating agencies. 

According to privacy paperwork published by DHS last year, ChatGPT, BingChat, Claude 2, DALL-E2, and Grammarly all had provisional approval within the agency. DHSChat is meant to follow up on an AI roadmap released by the agency earlier this year. Use cases for the agency include assisting with cyber terminology and creating study aids, per the blog post.

“Last year, we began allowing employees to use commercial generative AI tools like ChatGPT and Claude on publicly available information only; thousands of employees have now received training and use these tools to support their work,” Boyce wrote.

He continued: “By using DHSChat, employees are able to perform routine work more efficiently. This includes summarizing complex documents and reports, generating computer code, and streamlining repetitive tasks like data entry. With this new tool, thousands of employees will be able to leverage generative AI capabilities safely and securely using non-public data.”

Eventually, Boyce added, the agency hopes to create a “secure internal knowledge hub” that employees can query. 

The announcement comes as agencies begin to release the latest versions of their AI inventories, including DHS.

Correction: An earlier version of this article referred to ChatDHS, rather than DHSChat.