Use of Natural Language Processing for Topic Modeling to Automate Review of Public Comments to Notice of Proposed Rulemaking

Section 1: Use Case Identifiers

Use Case ID: HHS-CDC-00018
Agency: HHS
Op Div/Staff Div: CDC
Use Case Topic Area: Mission-Enabling (internal agency support)
Is the AI use case found in the below list of general commercial AI products and services?
None of the above.
What is the intended purpose and expected benefits of the AI?
This use case is aimed to assist in the review of public comments for Notices of Proposed Rulemaking. All responses are manually reviewed following this tool usage.

By law, Public comments are required to be manually review for any notice of public rule making. These comments are highly labor intensive due to both the quantity and wide range of potential opinions shared by the public. These comments can range in both length of response and quantity serving as a challenge for properly ensuring the insights from the public are accurately gathered in the review process. By using an LLM based Topic Modeling approach, manual reviewers can organize responses based upon theme to enhance both the insights gained, the speed of manual review, and ensure all topics mentioned can be accurately reported in all review processes. This process can use open source python libraries and open-source LLMs to complete different actions. This AI methodology enables manual review processes to be more effective in gaining insights from the public, better organized in themes and categories present within text, and reduce the burden of manual review of comments from notices of proposed rulemaking required by law.
Describe the AI system's outputs.
Generates clusters of similar public comments to a 'notice of proposed rulemaking' to aid in manual review.
Stage of Development: Acquisition and/or Development
Is the AI use case rights-impacting, safety-impacting, both, or neither?
Neither

Section 2: Use Case Summary

Date Initiated: 02/2023
Date when Acquisition and/or Development began: 04/2023
Date Implemented: N/A
Date Retired: N/A
Was the AI system involved in this use case developed (or is it to be developed) under contract(s) or in-house?
Developed in-house.
Provide the Procurement Instrument Identifier(s) (PIID) of the contract(s) used.
N/A
Is this AI use case supporting a High-Impact Service Provider (HISP) public-facing service?
N/A
Does this AI use case disseminate information to the public?
N/A
How is the agency ensuring compliance with Information Quality Act guidelines, if applicable?
N/A
Does this AI use case involve personally identifiable information (PII) that is maintained by the agency?
N/A
Has the Senior Agency Official for Privacy (SAOP) assessed the privacy risks associated with this AI use case?
ongoing

Section 3: Data and Code

Do you have access to an enterprise data catalog or agency-wide data repository that enables you to identify whether or not the necessary datasets exist and are ready to develop your use case?
No
Describe any agency-owned data used to train, fine-tune, and/or evaluate performance of the model(s) used in this use case.
None
Is there available documentation for the model training and evaluation data that demonstrates the degree to which it is appropriate to be used in analysis or for making predictions?
Documentation has been partially completed
Which, if any, demographic variables does the AI use case explicitly use as model features?
N/A
Does this project include custom-developed code?
N/A
Does the agency have access to the code associated with the AI use case?
N/A
If the code is open-source, provide the link for the publicly available source code.
N/A

Section 4: AI Enablement and Infrastructure

Does this AI use case have an associated Authority to Operate (ATO) for an AI system?
Yes
System Name: Enterprise Data, Analytics, and Visualization Platform
How long have you waited for the necessary developer tools to implement the AI use case?
Less than 6 months
For this AI use case, is the required IT infrastructure provisioned via a centralized intake form or process inside the agency?
Yes
Do you have a process in place to request access to computing resources for model training and development of the AI involved in this use case?
Yes
Has communication regarding the provisioning of your requested resources been timely?
Yes
How are existing data science tools, libraries, data products, and internally-developed AI infrastructure being re-used for the current AI use case?
None
Has information regarding the AI use case, including performance metrics and intended use of the model, been made available for review and feedback within the agency?
Limited documentation for review