AI Tools Increase Applications and Complaints in Public Services
With the widespread use of artificial intelligence tools, a massive surge in applications and complaints submitted to public institutions has been observed worldwide.
The fact that artificial intelligence technologies make filling out forms and submitting complaints easier has led to a massive increase in applications received by public services worldwide.
Globally Increasing Applications
With the proliferation of artificial intelligence tools, public services worldwide have started experiencing a massive surge in applications and requests.
Complaints submitted to the housing ombudsman in the UK have more than doubled since the launch of ChatGPT, rising from 2,600 in 2022 to over 7,000 last year.
Surge in Institutions Across Different Countries
The U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau recorded a fivefold growth in complaints over the same period.
Alongside this increase in the U.S., similar jumps have been observed in judicial petitions in Brazil and parliamentary petitions in Germany.
Agent-Based Flooding Trend
Researcher Chris Schmitz tracks this rise as part of a broader trend he terms agent-based flooding.
In his paper to be presented at the AI Ethics and Society conference, Schmitz examines 84 potential cases across 11 different jurisdictions.
Overcoming Administrative Barriers
While some of the newly filed applications are contentious in nature, others come from legitimate applicants who would have otherwise given up due to administrative hurdles.
Artificial intelligence enables citizens to easily submit claims for rights that they normally could not execute due to complex processes.
An Opportunity to Rethink Social Services
Although Schmitz's paper does not conclusively prove that artificial intelligence is the direct cause of this surge, it draws attention to the parallelism between the rate of adoption and the growth curve.
The researcher views this situation not merely as AI-induced spam, but as an opportunity to rethink social services for the age of artificial intelligence.