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GovHack 2024

AI Universal Translator for Inclusive Government

Our mission is to enhance civic life, driving democratic renewal and build a sense of belonging by fostering social inclusion. We aim to empower all citizens—regardless of language, background, ability, or accessibility needs—to fully participate in society by improving their access to vital information and services.

We aim to empower all citizens—regardless of language, background, ability, or accessibility needs—to fully participate in society by improving their access to vital information and services. of belonging by fostering social inclusion. We aim to empower all citizens— regardless of language, background, ability, or accessibility needs—to fully participate in society by improving their access to vital information and services.

Additionally, we strive to equip government staff at all levels—local, state, and federal—with AI-powered tools that serve as co-pilots, reducing administrative burdens and improving overall efficiency in delivering public services.

"We're committed to increasing cultural participation, and helping businesses to innovate, adapt and grow." -City of Sydney
"Australia is a prosperous, safe and united country. Our inclusive national identity is built around our shared values including democracy, freedom, equal opportunity and individual responsibility." -Department of Home Affairs

Our Approach

Additionally, we strive to equip government staff at all levels—local, state, and federal—with AI-powered tools that serve as co-pilots, reducing administrative burdens and improving overall efficiency in delivering public services.

We are developing a universal translator, a trusted and personalised tool designed to bridge communication gaps between the government and the diverse population it serves. This tool will be especially impactful for individuals with disabilities, ensuring that communication barriers are removed and that they have equitable access to information.

In our approach, we have developed a minimal viable project (MVP) or prototype showcasing a range of AI-powered services designed to form the foundation of a universal translator for inclusive government.

This translator adapts to multiple access channels, focusing on the ones most relevant to citizens, tailored to their context and accessibility needs.

Universal Translator System Diagram

Key Features

  • Citizenship queries: Responds to inquiries using data exclusively from citizenship websites.
  • Text-to-speech: Converts written content into speech for those who prefer or require auditory formats.
  • Summarization: Provides concise summaries of complex information.
  • Simplified language: Adjusts reading levels to ensure content is accessible to all literacy levels.
  • Language translation: Translates content into the user's preferred language.
  • Government staff query (review): Reviews documents for plain language compliance.
  • Government staff query (translation): Translates official documents into plain, easily understandable language.
  • Autonomous verification: Uses autonomous agents to verify the accuracy of generated responses.
  • Transparency dashboard: Offers both citizens and government agencies a clear view of AI performance, ensuring transparency and accountability.
Universal Translator System Diagram

Key Usecases

  • Non-English Speaker Engaging with Local Council: A resident who does not speak English can confidently communicate with their local council in their native language. They can ask questions, raise concerns, and receive accurate responses in real time, without needing a translator, ensuring privacy and direct communication.
  • Simplifying Complex Government Forms: Faced with lengthy, complicated government forms, a citizen uses the system to automatically simplify the documentation into plain, readable language. Key terms and sections are explained in an easy-to-understand manner, helping them navigate the process with confidence.
  • Accessibility for Low Literacy Levels: An individual with a low reading level uses the tool to automatically simplify a government document. The system breaks down complex language into simpler terms, making it easier for them to understand and engage with essential information.
  • Time-Poor Citizen Receiving Summaries: A busy citizen can quickly receive a summary of important government information or reports. Instead of sifting through detailed documents, the system provides them with concise, clear summaries of the key points, saving them time while keeping them informed.
  • Reporting Issues in Plain Language: A citizen who wants to report a pothole or other issue can easily do so using the tool, which allows them to describe the problem in plain English. The system captures their input and formats it appropriately for submission to the relevant government department, avoiding the need for complex forms.
  • Government Employee Ensuring Document Compliance: A government employee uses the system to review a document they have ve written, ensuring it aligns with the latest guidelines from the Australian Style Manual. The tool checks for adherence to style, tone, punctuation, and inclusive language, offering suggestions for improvement before final submission.
  • Data Source Verification: The system reviews incoming information from various sources (social media, public platforms, news outlets, etc.) and cross-references it with authoritative and trusted databases to check for accuracy and reliability.
  • Disinformation Detection: Using AI techniques such as Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), the system automatically checks whether the information aligns with known, verified facts. If discrepancies are detected, the system flags potential disinformation and provides a summary of conflicting information.
  • Increasing Volunteering Through AI-Driven Awareness: Volunteering rates are declining partly because people are unaware of local needs or find it difficult to understand how they can help. This use case focuses on making volunteer opportunities easier to understand and engage with.

Agentic flows and Plain Language Style Guide

We have been further exploring agentic flows post GovHack to see what can be achieved using agents to better align documents with Federal Plain Language Style Guide.

Plain Language Style Guide Agents Diagram

Plain Speaking Agents: AI-Powered Style Guide Implementation

A system of specialized AI agents working together to transform complex government communications into clear, accessible content that adheres to the Australian Government Style Manual guidelines.

Core Style Analysis Agents (Parallel Processing)

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Style Guide Ingestion Agent

  • Processes original document
  • Generates markup-based recommendations
  • Lists core style elements requiring attention
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Inclusivity & Accessibility Agent

  • Reviews document for accessibility concerns
  • Provides markup-based recommendations for improvements
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Content Structure Agent

  • Analyzes document organization
  • Provides structural recommendations in markup format
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Content Type Agent

  • Identifies content type
  • Provides type-specific recommendations in markup format
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Reference Attribution Agent

  • Reviews document sources
  • Provides attribution recommendations in markup

Central Integration

Integration Agent icon

Integrate Styles Agent

Critical Central Component

  • Serves as the central consolidation point
  • Takes input from ALL style analysis agents
  • Resolves potential conflicts between recommendations
  • Produces a unified, coherent final document
  • Ensures consistency across all applied changes

Output Processing

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Revision Marker Agent

  • Compares original and final documents
  • Creates line-by-line comparison markup
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Metadata Agent

  • Processes final document
  • Generates JSON metadata file
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Summary Agent

  • Reviews metadata and final document
  • Produces concise summary

System Tools and Utilities

File Handling Tools

  • Read file operations for document ingestion
  • Write file operations for outputs
  • Support multiple file formats and encodings

Metrics and Costs Tracking

(End-of-process utility)

  • Calculates total token usage
  • Provides cost analysis of processing

Future Development

A second crew of agents is being developed to:

  • Ingest the Australian Government Style Manual website content
  • Store information in a vector database
  • Enable enhanced style guidance through RAG
"Making government communication more accessible to all Australians through AI-powered assistance, supporting both content creators and consumers in achieving clearer, more effective communication."

Use of Artificial Intelligence

Recognizing the need for ethical, responsible, and safe AI, we are committed to transparency and public trust.

We completed a self assessment using the The NSW AI Assessment Framework during the GovHack period. This sixty page document is an important asset for any project looking for use in government and should be completed in multiple stages of the project lifecycle, including at the initial concept stage.

We completed a self assessment using the The NSW AI Assessment Framework during the GovHack period. This sixty page document is an important asset for any project looking for use in government and should be completed in multiple stages of the project lifecycle, including at the initial concept stage.

We also introduce a governance monitoring layerthat oversees the AI orchestration engine, monitoring performance metrics related to accessibility, accuracy, and fairness.

AI Assessment Framework

Advanced AI Techniques

We achieve these goals using some state-of-the-art AI technologies, including:

  • Multi-modal Large Language Models: Handle text and speech, making services accessible to all, including those with disabilities.
  • Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG): Ensures that information is accurate and sourced from authoritative references.
  • Agentic AI Models: Validate query results before presenting them to users, ensuring responsible and accurate responses.
  • Governance Dashboards: Aligned with the latest AI principles and accessibility frameworks, especially focused on providing transparency and accountability in service to all citizens, including those with disabilities.

Technology Stack

Our prototype is built with scalability, flexibility, and accessibility in mind:

  • Python for backend processing.
  • Vue.js, Vuetify, Vite for front end development
  • Langchain and LangServ for managing language models and agent-based workflows.
  • Large Language Models(LLM) for natural language understanding and generation.
  • Agentic autonomous agents for validating outputs and ensuring ethical standards.
  • Text-to-Speech for accessibility, offering auditory assistance to those who need it.
  • Vector database Index and store embeddings from data ingestion pipelines

All components are deployed in Docker containers, using Docker Compose in a component based architecture. LLM API's are invokable within microservices using LangServ to ensure easy scalability and modularity across different environments.

Team Datasets

  • Style Manual for Australian Government: Data ingestion pipeline parses the style manual unstructured data on this site, creates embeddings and stores these in a vector database for later sematic search. This helps ensure that text provided is semantically aligned to the style guide. Data Set
  • Social Cohesion - Dept of Home Affairs: Data ingestion pipeline parses the data on this site, creates embeddings and stores these in a vector database for later sematic search. This helps ensure that questions on citizenship are being answered based on qualified official sources to minimise hallucinations. Data Set

Data Story

Unstructured data represents a traditionally difficult data type to take advantage of. It can include text from official government documents, government websites, social media interactions, and more, holds invaluable insights that structured data alone cannot provide.

By tapping into this resource, and using AI techniques we can create a more comprehensive and responsive AI Universal Translator that better meets the needs of all citizens, including the diverse long tail that makes up modern Australia.

Our approach involves several advanced techniques to transform this unstructured data into actionable intelligence:

  • Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG):
    • Data Ingestion: Converts unstructured data into a vector database-friendly format.
    • Semantic Search: Identifies semantically equivalent terms for more intuitive query responses.
  • Vector Databases:
    • Scalability: Ensures efficient data retrieval as the dataset grows.
    • Contextual Understanding: Provides nuanced and precise responses by understanding the context.
  • Governance and Compliance:
    • AI Principles Alignment: Ensures fairness, transparency, and accountability.
    • AI Principle aligned performance metrics: Tracks accessibility, accuracy, and fairness via a governance dashboard.

Data Quality

We conducted an assessment of the data quality from unstructured webpages for RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) ingestion. Our focus was on identifying pages with strong examples of good writing style, as this would enhance the accuracy of AI-generated results.

We recommend that the Australian government expand its style guides to include a broader range of examples illustrating both good and poor writing practices. This would provide clearer guidance for AI solutions utilizing these guides in a RAG pipeline, ultimately improving the accuracy of semantic search outcomes. Establishing a more consistent structure across webpages, along with a curated dataset of exemplary and suboptimal practices, would streamline the ingestion process and enhance overall results.

AI In Governance - The Bigger Picture

This section looks to answer some of the strategic questions posed by the Infosys International Challenge on AI Governance.

Boosting Operational Efficiency

In a large agency, scaling adoption commensurate with organisation maturity, risk appetite and experience of AI solutions will be key.

Improving Transparency

By strategically implementing AI and ensuring robust governance, government agencies can significantly enhance transparency, improve public trust, and deliver better services.

Ensuring Ethical Use

To ensure the ethical use of AI applications in the public sector, a comprehensive set of frameworks and guidelines should be established.

Data Privacy and Security

To protect the privacy and security of sensitive data used by AI in public sector applications, a multi-faceted approach involving robust frameworks, continuous monitoring, and proactive measures must be implemented.

Building Public Trust

To build and maintain public trust in AI-driven systems, governments must adopt a transparent, inclusive, and accountable approach throughout the development and deployment processes.

Future Adaptations

Emerging trends and technologies in AI have the potential to significantly enhance public sector efficiency and transparency.

Extending an implementation plan to include AI project elements

Government AI projects differ from typical agile or waterfall software or IT projects in several key ways, primarily because they rely on data and machine learning models to deliver results, instead of following predefined logic.