Dec 8, 2023
Dec 7, 2023
What's At Stake For SSA With Generative AI
The Acting Commissioner of Social Security recently made the decision that the agency will, for now, have no involvement with Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI). While I have a healthy skepticism that AI will ever have much role in taking or adjudicating Social Security claims, there's one area where Generative AI may be of considerable assistance and that's dealing with the COBOL problem. Social Security's most important computer programs are written in the ancient COBOL programming language. Many other agencies and private companies are similarly dependent upon COBOL. Schools are no longer teaching COBOL. Computer programmers don't want to work with it. Few programmers are available to work on COBOL programs and those programmers have long since gone gray.
IBM, and probably others, have decided that Generative AI may be the cure for COBOL problems. There would be no need to laboriously rewrite all the old programs in newer programming languages. AI would quickly rewrite the old COBOL programs in modern computer programming languages. Programmers would be more widely available for modern computer languages. Corrections and improvements to existing programs would become easier. That would be a godsend to Social Security, if it works.
Dec 6, 2023
Social Security Says Don't Rely On SkillTRAN For Numbers Of Jobs
From Emergency Message EM-21065 REV, Guidelines for Using Occupational Information in Electronic Tools issued yesterday (emphasis added):
In making disability determinations, SSA relies primarily on the Dictionary of Occupational Titles (DOT) (including its companion publication, the Selected Characteristics of Occupations (SCO)) for information about the requirements of work in the national economy. The SSA Digital Library hosts three searchable databases developed by SkillTRAN for the DOT. Adjudicators may use these tools to help make an assessment at step four (see 20 CFR 404.1560(b)(2) and 416.960(b)(2)) or step five (see 20 CFR 404.1566(d), 404.1568(d)(2), 416.966(d), and 416.968(d)(2)) of the sequential evaluation process. ...
- [The three searchable databases] contain
DOT and SCO occupational information developed by the United States
Department of Labor (DOL). This information is useful, but it does not
replace SSA policy or adjudicative judgment and decision-making. While
the DOT and SCO are acceptable sources of occupational information for
adjudicating disability claims, they also contain (1) information that
must not be used in disability adjudication because our rules and subregulatory guidance do not permit it and (2) information of which we do not take administrative notice. ...
- Federal agencies now publish labor market information
by the Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) code. Those with
vocational expertise use various approaches to arrive at informed
estimates of numbers of jobs that exist within a DOT occupation. Results
may differ given the method used for the estimate. We have not reviewed
and do not specifically endorse the SkillTRAN proprietary algorithm. ...
To explain, in responding to hypothetical questions, vocational experts testifying at hearings on Social Security disability claims give lists of jobs that a hypothetical claimant could perform. They also testify to the numbers of such jobs in the economy. The numbers of jobs figures come from a propriety program, SkillTRAN. I think that everyone who has looked at this issue, including Administrative Law Judges, knows that those SkillTRAN numbers are bull. Social Security is finally acknowledging this.
Will this affect cases where these numbers have already been cited in decisions? We'll see.
Dec 5, 2023
AI Out At Social Security, For Now
From Fedscoop:
The Social Security Administration has banned the use of generative artificial intelligence-based tools on agency devices, FedScoop has confirmed. The block, which is temporary, is meant to ensure the security of data and systems.
The agency’s block of these third-party tools was disclosed earlier this month in a management advisory report for this fiscal year, published by the SSA’s inspector general office. The report noted that the decision was made to protect personally identifiable information, along with health, sensitive and other non-public information, that risked being shared through the use of the technology.
The Social Security Administration said the block was a precautionary measure and that the agency has yet to use generative AI. When asked if the ban applies to agency laptops and mobile devices, a spokesperson said the block “is designed to be agency-wide.” ...
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