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Senate aides are now allowed to use AI chatbots like Google’s Gemini, OpenAI’s ChatGPT, or Microsoft Copilot to help with their work.
In a memo to staff seen by The New York Times, aides were given permission to use Copilot to “help with routine Senate work, including drafting and editing documents, summarizing information, preparing talking points and briefing material, and conducting research and analysis.”
The memo omitted mention of Anthropic’s Claude, one of the world’s most popular chatbots, which is currently under fire from the Trump administration, with the President calling the AI firm "left-wing nut jobs" in a Truth Social post. The House allowed its aides to use tools like ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini, and Claude for their work, according to a POPVOX Foundation report from last year. However, there are restrictions on sensitive use cases, such as handling sensitive data or drafting speeches. Questions still remain about whether aides using the chatbots will be allowed to work with sensitive data. Spokespeople from both the Democrats and the Republicans on the Senate Intelligence Committee did not respond to the NYT's inquiry about the policies which are in place around using AI chatbots for committee work.
Though this may be the first time Senate aides have received official approval to use tools like ChatGPT in their work, there is a good chance it won’t be the first time they’ve used them for Senate-related tasks.
An investigation from Business Insider last year revealed that ‘dozens’ of Capitol Hill lawmakers had given their staffers permission to use AI tools, including Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut. Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts said, ‘I don’t have a problem with my staffers using ChatGPT as one of their tools.’
It wouldn’t exactly be surprising if chatbots have already been used unofficially by government staffers. Researchers have highlighted how many white-collar industries have been hit with an epidemic of ‘workslop’, with unauthorized AI use abounding in industries like IT and professional services in particular.