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The FDA launched a new generative AI tool it hopes will make employees more efficient on everything from clinical evaluations to inspections
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Here are the details. The FDA's new AI tool is called ELSA, and it was developed in-house to help with reading, writing, and summarizing
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They want this to modernize the entire FDA, and it's already making a difference
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ELSA shortens the time needed for scientific evaluations, summarizes adverse effect reports for medicines and therapeutics, expedites clinical reviews, generates code to develop non-clinical databases, and helps inspectors determine where they're most likely to find violations and safety issues
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The FDA said ELSA is secure and relies only on internal documents
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All information stays within the agency, and the AI models are not being trained on data submitted by the industry
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Even with safeguards, there is potential for error. The Trump administration learned that with the recent release of the Make America Healthy Again report, which cited studies that don't exist
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Experts say those types of mistakes happen with generative AI use. They're called AI hallucinations
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The federal government is using AI at an increasing rate. In fact, it doubled AI use from 2023 to 2024
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According to data collected by the Chief Information Officers Council, the biggest users are the Departments of Health and Human Services, Veterans Affairs, Interior, and Homeland Security
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Approximately 46% of the uses are what's described as mission-enabling, including finance management, human resources, and facilities and properties management
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It's also used for cybersecurity, IT, and other administrative functions. I'm Ray Bogan for Straight Arrow News. For more reporting, download the SAN app
