Governor Kathy Hochul announced a new client feedback initiative in partnership with Code for America to improve New York's WIC program by implementing live online chat to gather input from participants, streamline enrollment, and increase access to healthy food for eligible families.
The Policy2Code Prototyping Challenge explored utilizing generative AI technology to translate U.S. government policies for public benefits into plain language and code, culminating in a Demo Day where twelve teams showcased their projects for feedback and evaluation.
The team introduced an AI assistant for benefits navigators to streamline the process and improve outcomes by quickly assessing client eligibility for benefits programs.
The team developed an application to simplify Medicaid and CHIP applications through LLM APIs while addressing limitations such as hallucinations and outdated information by implementing a selective input process for clean and current data.
The team explored using LLMs to interpret the Program Operations Manual System (POMS) into plain language logic models and flowcharts as educational resources for SSI and SSDI eligibility, benchmarking LLMs in RAG methods for reliability in answering queries and providing useful instructions to users.
The team examined how AI, specifically LLMs, could streamline the case review process for SNAP applications to alleviate the burden on case workers while potentially improving accuracy.
The team developed an AI-powered explanation feature that effectively translates complex, multi-program policy calculations into clear and accessible explanations, enabling users to explore "what-if" scenarios and understand key factors influencing benefit amounts and eligibility thresholds.
The team developed an AI solution to assist benefit navigators with in-the-moment program information, finding that while LLMs are useful for summarizing and interpreting text, they are not ideal for implementing strict formulas like benefit calculations, but can accelerate the eligibility process by leveraging their strengths in general tasks.
The team conducted experiments to determine whether clients would be responsive to proactive support offered by a chatbot, and identify the ideal timing of the intervention.
The study investigates how state agencies administering SNAP comply with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act by providing language access for individuals with limited English proficiency (LEP).
