2024-02-23 22:53:47
In 2023, TCU became one of the first bodies in Brazil to offer generative AI technology connected to several internal systems, for use by all employees and employees. The ChatTCU virtual assistant already serves more than 1,400 users in the Court
Last year, the Federal Audit Court (TCU) carried out significant advances in artificial intelligence initiatives (IA) and became one of the first bodies in Brazil to offer generative AI technology connected to several internal systems, for use by all servers and employees. The concept refers to systems that have the ability to create information, rather than just analyzing or reproducing existing data. The use of technology is revolutionizing internal practices and strengthening external control actions.
The President of the Court, Minister Bruno Dantas, highlights that investment in information technology (IT) is a priority for the Court of Auditors. “Over the years, we have consistently invested in IT. In addition to financial contributions, TCU has highly qualified teams allocated in this area, which explore new technologies and approaches, such as artificial intelligence and data analysis. I can say that innovation is a commitment of the entire Court, always focusing on the excellence of our performance and on improving the services provided to society”, he points out.
The highlight is the implementation of ChatTCU, virtual assistant developed with the Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service solution. Focusing on internal use, the system is currently being used by more than 1,400 users. Chat supports several tasks, such as document analysis, legal research, translation and administrative consultationsfor example.
In its third version, ChatTCU is integrated with some TCU systems, using data, jurisprudence and knowledge of the House’s administrative systems. With this, the exclusive generative AI platform for internal use at TCU allows you to connect institutional knowledge to the best AI engine on the market, allowing you to support complex tasks under the control of servers.
“With the integration of the tool into TCU systems, an auditor can both consult our administrative system and have insights for a specific inspection. It is possible, for example, to extract data and information on the subject, in order to plan the work”, explains the Secretary of Information Technology and Digital Evolution of the Court, Rainério Rodrigues.
The ChatTCU model was developed through the creation of a multidisciplinary Working Group and intense debates. Based on natural language processing, ChatTCU operates in the Microsoft cloud, under a contract that guarantees security and confidentiality, in which information is kept under the TCU domain and goes through layers of protection and privacy. Considered a success, the experience of using the tool has been shared with other public administration bodies and has already been presented to 80 federal institutions.
“We internalized this technology before any other body thought regarding it. This internalization was based on the following: this is a technology that is here to stay and we need to be prepared to use it conscientiously, knowing the potential and risks and sensitizing employees on the best way to use it”, observes Rodrigues.
The goal is for ChatTCU to continue to be improved as new features are developed. These updates will include the possibility of incorporating auditing standards in the future, providing guidance for the Court’s activities; capabilities to perform internet searches to obtain updated content; to answer questions based on institutional knowledge, citing reference publications; to integrate with other systems of the institution; generating queries and cross-checking databases using natural language.
Another important point for improving the use of generative AI at TCU was the launch of an unprecedented public call to receive Research and Development projects through Technological Order (Etec). At the time, the proposal from the NeuralMind & Terranova consortium was chosen, which has been working on the development of a module that adds functionalities based on artificial intelligence to the Assisted Instruction Solution for TCU processes.
To ensure even more significant improvements, TCU recently gained an internal subunit entirely dedicated to the topic: the Artificial Intelligence Center, whose current main task is to continue the development of ChatTCU. The group has five employees and nine outsourced employees. Furthermore, internal events are common to disseminate good practices, share experiences and encourage innovation.
A long road being walked
Since 2016, the Court has invested in artificial intelligence. In search of tools and technologies that strengthen external control, the first solutions created were based on classic AI, that is, systems aimed at classifying and categorizing data and making decisions based on predefined rules and training data.
Among the solutions, the robots ALICE (Analysis of Tenders and Notices), SOFIA (Guidance System on Facts and Evidence for the Auditor), ÁGATA (Textual Analysis Generating Application with Learning), MONICA (Integrated Monitoring for Control) stand out. of Acquisitions), SAO (Budget Analysis System), ADELE (Dispute Analysis in Electronic Tenders), MARINA (Acquisition Risk Map), CARINA (National Press Records Crawler and Analyzer) and Zello (TCU virtual assistant ). In addition to the systems, e-TCE, SIR, Conjur Assistant, Detecta, ALERT, TCU Integrated Research and the risk-based Personnel Act Selector.
Since its implementation, the tools have increased the productivity of TCU professionals by carrying out analysis work in various areas such as bidding, textual analysis, acquisition monitoring, budget analysis, electronic bidding disputes, risk analysis, among others.
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