{"id":302990,"date":"2026-10-09T10:00:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-09T10:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/302990\/"},"modified":"2026-10-09T10:00:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-09T10:00:10","slug":"professors-on-the-governments-new-ai-chatbot-the-lafayette","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/302990\/","title":{"rendered":"Professors on the government\u2019s new AI-chatbot \u2013 The Lafayette"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"America.gov<\/a> <\/p>\n

America.gov is part of a larger executive order aimed at improving federal digital communications. (Photo courtesy of America.gov.)<\/p>\n

The Trump administration recently launched America.gov<\/a>, an AI-powered search engine intended to centralize government information and services into one platform. Lafayette College professors across several disciplines weighed in on the site\u2019s impact on the public and potential concerns.<\/p>\n

The site is touted as a way for Americans to navigate various federal systems with help from the chatbot. Upon opening the site, visitors are prompted with sample queries, including \u201cwhen do I qualify for Medicare,\u201d \u201chow do I update my address with USPS\u201d and \u201chelp me find a new job.\u201d<\/p>\n

The executive order<\/a> authorizing the site\u2019s creation was first signed on Aug. 21, 2025, with the first phase of the project, which included the site\u2019s launch, announced in a Sept. 30 executive order<\/a> this year.<\/p>\n

Unlike traditional search engines, generative AI systems produce responses by identifying patterns in data it is trained on and predicting what information most likely follows.<\/p>\n

Sofia Serrano, an assistant professor of computer science, said that her initial reaction was that America.gov felt like a \u201cbit of a misprioritization.\u201d She questioned whether creating a new interface for government information addresses the more systemic problems people face when accessing government services.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you were hypothetically a government figure who was interested in changing those answers that people receive, that also gives you more of a centralized place to do that,\u201d Serrano said of the database.<\/p>\n

The chatbot\u2019s reliability also raised questions. Priyank Kalgaonkar, an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, wrote in an email that AI could be useful as a guide to official resources, but should initially assist users rather than serve as the final authority for essential services.<\/p>\n

Tim Laquintano, an associate provost and associate professor of English who is currently studying the \u201cadoption of large language models by workplace writers,\u201d said America.gov\u2019s effectiveness should ultimately be measured by whether it reduces errors compared with existing ways of finding government information.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe question is, when we look at this system, which is humans interacting with this bot, \u2018is the error rate greater or less than what we had, which was human beings interacting with websites?\u2019\u201d Laquintano said.<\/p>\n

Diana Sun, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering, said users may not possess enough knowledge to recognize when an AI-generated answer is incorrect.<\/p>\n

Although the site claims to not store any specific or personal data that a user submits in its privacy policy<\/a>, Serrano said specific questions a user asks could be used to profile them.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat counts as personally identifiable information to an AI system that\u2019s trained on so much data can be a much lower threshold than you think,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Kyle Keeler, an assistant professor of environmental studies, raised concern over environmental costs associated with the infrastructure required to operate large AI systems. He pointed to emissions, water use, waste and critical mineral extraction as potential consequences of expanding AI systems.<\/p>\n

\u201cEach of these is an environmental justice issue,\u201d Keeler wrote in an email.<\/p>\n

Despite those concerns, Kalgaonkar said the potential benefits of America.gov could outweigh its risks if the platform is implemented carefully.<\/p>\n

Laquintano said the platform could improve access if users have meaningful ways to seek human assistance.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf it were thoughtfully designed and people had recourse to humans to check any potential errors or to make any potential appeals, it would probably end up being a better system than just incredible amounts of information on the web,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"America.gov is part of a larger executive order aimed at improving federal digital communications. (Photo courtesy of America.gov.)…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":302991,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154],"class_list":["post-302990","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302990","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=302990"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302990\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/302991"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=302990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=302990"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=302990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}