The Department of Homeland Security’s U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has initiated a pilot program utilizing generative artificial intelligence (AI) to aid in interviews with individuals seeking refugee status, as reported by Nexgov on Thursday. The interviews, which typically last around three hours, involve tenured workers assuming the role of refugees during simulated interviews as part of new officer training. The aim is to replicate real-life conversations that officers are likely to have with refugee seekers.
According to the director of the DHS AI Corps, these mock interviews will employ generative AI to simulate refugee applicants and provide them with new answers, enabling them to practice the lengthy interview process with an automated system. The DHS fully supports USCIS’ use of generative AI, emphasizing that it will generate dynamic and personalized training materials tailored to officers’ specific needs. This approach ensures comprehensive knowledge and training on a wide range of current policies and laws relevant to their jobs.
The agency also acknowledges the potential benefits of genAI technology in these training sessions, despite the hallucinations and inaccuracies it may produce. The use of interpreters often leads to confusion and discrepancies, making the genAI’s ability to address such issues valuable, as stated by Boyce, the director of the DHS AI Corps.