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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ??MEDIA CONTACT:
?February 13, 2020? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Joshua Eck, (614) 549-2846
(COLUMBUS, Ohio)?Lt. Governor Jon Husted today announced that the Common Sense Initiative (CSI), in partnership with InnovateOhio, has launched a project to utilize an artificial intelligence (AI) tool aimed at reforming Ohio?s regulatory landscape.
?Ohio has over 200 years of rules and regulations that have been patched together in a way that no one person or team of people can fully understand them,? said Lt. Governor Husted. ?With our new AI tool, any regulatory topic can be researched and analyzed in seconds. We are going to use this new tool to bring comprehensive regulatory reform to Ohio.?
When he took office in 2019, Lt. Governor Husted discovered a significant backlog of unreviewed rules at CSI. He oversaw the clearing of that backlog in the first 100 days of the DeWine-Husted Administration, and with the backlog fixed, CSI turned its sights toward improving the way they offer regulatory oversight. The implementation of the AI tool will allow the initiative to be proactive in the way it looks at rules instead of simply waiting for regulations to be filed.
A 2018 report from the Mercatus Center at George Mason University estimated that Ohio currently has over 240,000 regulations that would take a person 21 weeks to read. While there are many efforts attempted to ensure only necessary and reasonable rules remain on the books, the quantity makes it a near impossible task.
The project launched today, procured with the assistance of InnovateOhio, uses text analytics and artificial intelligence to analyze Ohio?s rules. By comparing and linking data sets?a task that could take humans months or years?it will provide government policymakers with opportunities to streamline regulations. The tool will more quickly sort data from the Ohio Revised Code (ORC) and Ohio Administrative Code (OAC) in order to narrow the work that needs to be done by human analysts. In partnership with CSI staff, this will significantly hasten the process of deciding which regulations are truly necessary for the health and safety of Ohioans and which may be outdated, conflicting, or redundant.
The tool was announced today during a meeting of the Small Business Advisory Council, which is a group of appointed members that advise on?government regulations and help identify?those that place unnecessary burdens on Ohio?s job creators.
This project was funded by the General Assembly in House Bill 166 to be administered through InnovateOhio.
With the use of this technology, CSI hopes to support the regulatory reform goals of the DeWine-Husted Administration, General Assembly leadership, and complement efforts being led by President Trump and his administration.
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