TOPEKA, Kansas — In a February committee meeting, Republican Rep. Sean Willcott of Holton told fellow lawmakers he had used artificial intelligence to help write some of his remarks on the meeting's topic: artificial intelligence.
"I use AI on a regular basis," Willcott said. "I used AI to help write some of these components."
Willcott is far from the only lawmaker who has used AI chatbots for Statehouse work. With technology improving, and legislative sessions becoming increasingly fast-paced, more and more Kansas legislators are using chatbots to keep up.
The Kansas News Service interviewed several lawmakers on both sides of the aisle about their use of tools like OpenAI's ChatGPT or Microsoft Copilot in the legislative process.
Some said they had used chatbots to summarize a bill ahead of a hearing or vote. Others said the tools helped provide quick background information on issues they weren't familiar with.
Yet Kansas lawmakers are still without a clear set of guidelines on how — or if — they should use AI chatbots in their day-to-day activities. There are no rules against lawmakers employing bots to answer constituent emails or write press releases.
Even eager adopters like Willcott say it's dangerous to lean too much on AI.
"I think it's a tool that can be used very effectively to become more efficient. The concern I have is people's understanding of its limits," Willcott said in a recent interview.
"Just because something sounds really, really intelligent and gives you an answer, doesn't necessarily make it a correct answer," he said.
How is AI being used?
Republican Rep. Nick Hoheisel of Wichita said he began tinkering with the technology for legislative use when ChatGPT started gaining popularity in 2023.
"I can put some language in there from a bill," he said, "and see what other states have this language on the books."
Hoheisel has also supported several proposals regulating AI in Kansas, such as a law passed last year that makes it a crime to create, possess or distribute child sexual abuse materials made by AI.
This session, Hoheisel introduced a bill that would create a task force to study AI and give recommendations to the state Legislature. But he said the bill will not advance this session, needing more time to decide who sits on the task force.
Hoheisel said the tools have fed him hallucinations — pieces of false information that chatbots make up out of whole cloth — especially when dealing with case law. He said the responsibility lies on individual lawmakers to use the tools responsibly.
"I would strongly encourage folks to double and triple check their work," he said.
Democratic state Rep. Stephanie Sawyer Clayton, meanwhile, is not shy about how suspiciously she views AI chatbots and their role in the Statehouse.
"As a legislative purist here, I choose to read the testimony with my own eyes and use the deductions from my own mind to ask questions, to make determinations as to what the legislation does or does not do," the Overland Park lawmaker said.
Sawyer Clayton said legislative staff exist to perform some of the tasks lawmakers are now handing to AI, especially summaries and finding data points quickly.
Multiple lawmakers said the pace of play in the Statehouse was a factor in AI uptake. During a particularly intense week in February, the state House voted on 113 bills in two days.
Sawyer Clayton said leaders are rushing the process because there are restrictions on fundraising for statewide offices during the session.
"We are running this session at a dangerous breakneck speed," Sawyer Clayton said. "By necessity, I think a lot of people are turning to these chatbots and chat tools in order to legislate because they have no other choice."
The issue, at least for now, doesn't cleave along party lines. Westwood Rep. Rui Xu, a fellow Democrat, said AI has quietly become a regular part of daily life in the Statehouse.
"I don't want to be a purist about it," he said, emphasizing that lawmakers should remain vigilant of biases and factual errors. "I think it is an effective tool and I don't think that we should ban it."
'A lot of work to do'
Over the same time period in which AI chatbots have rocketed in popularity, the Kansas Legislature has been waiting on an overhaul of its digital bill tracking system.
The modernization push has taken years, and delays have kindled bipartisan frustration.
Despite a desire for faster, more seamless software to track bills, amendments and resolutions, there are no imminent plans to incorporate AI into the overhaul, according to Altaf Uddin, chief information technology officer for the Kansas legislature.
"I think there is definitely room for AI in the future," he said in an interview. "But we haven't gotten there yet."
State agencies in Iowa, California and Utah have already incorporated AI-powered systems to track bills. And on an individual level, Uddin said chatbots could prove useful for quick research on a chamber floor.
But on an institutional level, Uddin is not yet comfortable relying on probability-based answers to questions that require high levels of precision. He stressed that AI is not — and should not, at least for the foreseeable future — get involved in drafting the text of bills or amendments.
"Dropping a 'not' or adding a 'not' can actually change what the interpretation of that bill is," he said.
"Until we are sure that that probabilistic model or the inference is going to be extremely accurate," Uddin said, "I think we have a lot of work to do."
Zane Irwin reports on politics, campaigns and elections for the Kansas News Service. You can email him at zaneirwin@kcur.org.
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