AI 'employees' help streamline city services

DeepSeek, a tech startup based in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, which surprised the world last month with the launch of its high-efficiency large reasoning model DeepSeek-R1, has announced the integration of artificial intelligence tools into government services in several Chinese cities.

While local governments are rushing to use DeepSeek's AI models to improve administration and governance, members of the public have mixed feelings about these developments.

Wei Jianzhang, vice-president of the Belt and Road Initiative's International Cooperation and Development Research Institute in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, said that while AI offers many advantages, such as improved efficiency and enhanced public services, it also comes with its fair share of challenges.

"It raises questions about data security and potential loss of jobs," Wei said, adding that the key is to strike a balance between innovation and the responsible use of AI tools to ensure that the technology serves the people and improves governance.

Several Chinese cities including Guangzhou in Guangdong, Hohhot in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, Ganzhou in Jiangxi province and Wuxi in Jiangsu province have taken steps to enhance administrative efficiency with AI assistance.

Last week, Shenzhen's Futian district launched 70 AI "employees", powered by DeepSeek-R1, for handling 11 different services across departments including document processing, investment project review and assignment of tasks.

Meanwhile, on Saturday, the Shenzhen municipal services and data management bureau released "Shen Xiao i", a chatbot-like AI assistant, making it available on the city's government services app.

Jin Yingzi, a spokeswoman for Futian district, said the AI system has "drastically improved efficiency".

For example, generating a government circular now takes only a few minutes, instead of five days, with the accuracy rate of formating documents exceeding 95 percent, she said, adding that auditing time has been reduced by 90 percent, while error rates are below 5 percent.

The launch of AI "employees" in Futian has garnered wide attention and attracted mixed reactions on social media, with users either praising the initiative or voicing anxiety, or both.

"It's a really good way to improve government efficiency," wrote one user on Sina Weibo. "However, it will make the competition to become a civil servant more intense and force those who are already employed to join the rat race to outperform their AI 'colleagues'."

Gao Zeng, deputy head of Futian district's digital services bureau, said that AI tools are only meant to assist in decision-making and will not replace human employees.

"These AI 'employees' are merely assisting civil servants. Their role is to provide support in daily tasks and aid public administration and delivery of services. Human-AI collaboration aims to enhance work efficiency and reduce the workload at the grassroots level," he said.

Each AI "employee" has a designated human supervisor and operates under the guidance of the supervisor, who is held accountable for all actions, Gao added.

Wei, from the BRI institute, said, "Local governments should prioritize ethical frameworks, transparency and human-centered design to ensure that AI assistants augment efficiency and do not replace human discretion."

wangxu@chinadaily.com.cn