FEATURE marginalized voices and outlier cases will be included less frequently in the LLMs .
Back to that “ intern ” who wants to please you : the GenAI tool may not have an exact answer to your prompt in its data set , but it will still respond to you . These are called “ hallucinations ”— plausible answers that are made up . There have been instances of GenAI creating fake journal citations and nonexistent court cases .
CDC ’ s Office of the Chief Information Officer built an internal instance using the Azure OpenAI Service , which allowed for the creation of a chatbot at CDC . Staff can use the tool to test out use cases in a safe and secure environment and increase their familiarity with AI . They can ask questions or inputs that will not be shared outside CDC and will not be used to train other versions of ChatGPT .
“ That was really about protecting employees from inadvertently disseminating information that they shouldn ’ t to the public ,” Calzada said . “ The approach that we took was ‘ let ’ s be cautious , but let ’ s not stifle innovation ’.”
AI conversations often include another worry : job loss . Workers fear computers pushing them out of their roles . But that ’ s something that public health laboratory professionals don ’ t have to anguish over , Florek said . In fact , the expectation is that AI will help with or take over low-level tasks , like data entry and data management , freeing up laboratory staff to work on more complex tasks and projects .
Florek envisions transitioning people from data entry roles to validation roles — ensuring the quality of the data coming out of the AI models — or data interpretation or process management roles . “ It ’ s less about replacing people , and it ’ s more about shifting responsibilities ,” she said .
Calzada has seen this happen in other industries as technology improves . “ Machines don ’ t replace humans . Humans who use AI are the ones that end up replacing people who don ’ t ,” he said . “ We see it time and time again . It ’ s experts that embrace AI tools and make themselves far more productive than either one alone who are the ones that are the real winners .”
Alleyne has seen how public health , especially public health laboratories , have often been excluded from technological advancements . But he sees an opportunity now for public health laboratories to begin exploring machine learning models , brainstorming best use cases and educating themselves about the potential of AI .
“ AI has lots of great potential , but it ’ s not something that I think you ’ ll see being utilized tomorrow ,” Oakeson said . “ There are still a lot of questions about its security , safety , privacy and ethics that have to be addressed and answered before it really makes its way into the government level , public health , the state level . But I think once it does , it ’ s going to be a big boon for public health laboratories .” g
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Lab Matters , APHL ’ s flagship publication , is seeking submissions from laboratorians at all levels of practice for “ From the Bench ,” a member-driven section of its quarterly magazine .
Told from the unique perspective of laboratory scientists , administrators or staff , we welcome articles covering topics across public health laboratory science , administration , careers and management .
For more information on writing guidelines , contact :
Gynene Sullivan , MA Communications Manager gynene . sullivan @ aphl . org 240.485.2750
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