{"id":90844,"topic":"ai","source":"ABC17NEWS","title":"Cole County developing guidelines for employee use of artificial intelligence - ABC17NEWS","url":"https://abc17news.com/news/cole/2026/09/26/cole-county-developing-guidelines-for-employee-use-of-artificial-intelligence/","url_hash":"b132d747a8d3c3e0fe6e702063e12c6068e49ed7","author":"","summary":"Cole County developing guidelines for employee use of artificial intelligence ABC17NEWS","content":"COLE COUNTY, Mo. (KMIZ)\nCole County is working on new guidelines for how employees can use artificial intelligence, particularly when it comes to protecting sensitive county information and ensuring AI-generated information is accurate.\nCole County Presiding Commissioner Sam Bushman told ABC 17 the county is still in the “premature stages” of developing guidelines for AI use.\nInformation Systems Director Brian Ridenhour presented the commission with a rough draft last week outlining several principles for the county to consider, including transparency, explainability, accountability and human oversight.\nThat human oversight would be especially important when AI is used for decisions that could significantly affect a person, Ridenhour said. He emphasized that AI should not be responsible for making critical decisions.\nThe goal is to establish clear expectations for employees as AI technology continues to develop.\nRidenhour said he has not seen a problem with the county's current use of AI, but he wants to put guidelines in place before potential issues arise.\nOne area of concern is what information employees enter into AI systems.\n“It’s our responsibility as county employees and elected officials that we use that properly and that we don’t put anything within an OpenAI model that could be used for private information,” Ridenhour said.\nAI can be useful for everyday tasks, such as formatting emails and memos. But Ridenhour said employees need to be more cautious when using county data, particularly with publicly available AI systems such as Google Gemini.\nEmployees should not enter proprietary or sensitive county information into those systems.\n“We don't want to put HIPAA-related information in there or PII.”\nProtecting information is not the only issue the county is considering. Officials also want employees to understand that AI-generated responses may not always be accurate.\n“You might be able to drop something into there, and it gives you some results. But if you don't vet those results, then that could be inaccurate.”\nAccording to Ridenhour, the next step is to create a committee made up of county staff members to help oversee how the technology is used.\n“The makeup of it is different departments, and one individual from each department that represents them. That way, we have a better-rounded idea of how it's going to influence the overall county.”\nRidenhour also pointed to AI disclosures used by social media platforms as an example of how the county could identify AI-generated content.\nHe said he would like the county to consider a similar disclaimer when AI is used to create content released by the county.\nThe county is also transitioning toward using Microsoft Copilot through Microsoft 365. Ridenhour said the county is still working through the licensing process.\nCounty officials have not announced a timeline for when the new AI guidelines will be finalized.\nCheck back for updates.","image_url":"https://abc17news.b-cdn.net/abc17news.com/2026/09/cole-county-ai-tz-860x484.jpg","lang":"en","published_at":"2026-09-26T15:55:23+00:00","fetched_at":"2026-09-26T16:15:03+00:00","status":"read","starred":0,"extract_state":"ok","summary_auto":"(KMIZ)\nCole County is working on new guidelines for how employees can use artificial intelligence, particularly when it comes to protecting sensitive county information and ensuring AI-generated information is accurate. Cole County Presiding Commissioner Sam Bushman told ABC 17 the county is still in the “premature stages” of developing guidelines for AI use.","cluster_id":null,"extract_retries":0,"extract_error":null,"contract_version":"news_item.v1","format_contract_version":"news_item_formats.v1","dedup_url":"https://abc17news.com/news/cole/2026/09/26/cole-county-developing-guidelines-for-employee-use-of-artificial-intelligence/","quality_profile":{"profile_version":"extraction_quality.v2","bucket":"high","confidence":0.9,"failure_kind":"none","retryable":false,"retry_after_attempts":0,"reason":"High confidence: full text extraction produced 2939 characters.","operator_guidance":{"severity":"ok","recommended_action":"trust_full_text","next_step":"Use the extracted full text as the primary article source.","operator_label":"Ready","can_retry":false,"can_use_summary":false,"diagnostics_required":false},"content_depth":{"contract_version":"content_depth.v1","category":"full_text","label":"Full text","has_full_text":true,"has_summary":true,"content_length":2939,"summary_length":361,"usable_text_length":2939,"source_field":"content"},"legacy_collapsed":false,"signals":{"extract_state":"ok","extract_error":null,"extract_retries":0,"content_length":2939,"summary_length":361}},"news_item":{"id":90844,"canonical_url":"https://abc17news.com/news/cole/2026/09/26/cole-county-developing-guidelines-for-employee-use-of-artificial-intelligence/","source_url":"https://abc17news.com/news/cole/2026/09/26/cole-county-developing-guidelines-for-employee-use-of-artificial-intelligence/","title":"Cole County developing guidelines for employee use of artificial intelligence - ABC17NEWS","source_name":"ABC17NEWS","author":null,"published_at":"2026-09-26T15:55:23+00:00","locale":"en","topic":"ai","tags":[],"rss_summary":"Cole County developing guidelines for employee use of artificial intelligence ABC17NEWS","full_text":"COLE COUNTY, Mo. (KMIZ)\nCole County is working on new guidelines for how employees can use artificial intelligence, particularly when it comes to protecting sensitive county information and ensuring AI-generated information is accurate.\nCole County Presiding Commissioner Sam Bushman told ABC 17 the county is still in the “premature stages” of developing guidelines for AI use.\nInformation Systems Director Brian Ridenhour presented the commission with a rough draft last week outlining several principles for the county to consider, including transparency, explainability, accountability and human oversight.\nThat human oversight would be especially important when AI is used for decisions that could significantly affect a person, Ridenhour said. He emphasized that AI should not be responsible for making critical decisions.\nThe goal is to establish clear expectations for employees as AI technology continues to develop.\nRidenhour said he has not seen a problem with the county's current use of AI, but he wants to put guidelines in place before potential issues arise.\nOne area of concern is what information employees enter into AI systems.\n“It’s our responsibility as county employees and elected officials that we use that properly and that we don’t put anything within an OpenAI model that could be used for private information,” Ridenhour said.\nAI can be useful for everyday tasks, such as formatting emails and memos. But Ridenhour said employees need to be more cautious when using county data, particularly with publicly available AI systems such as Google Gemini.\nEmployees should not enter proprietary or sensitive county information into those systems.\n“We don't want to put HIPAA-related information in there or PII.”\nProtecting information is not the only issue the county is considering. Officials also want employees to understand that AI-generated responses may not always be accurate.\n“You might be able to drop something into there, and it gives you some results. But if you don't vet those results, then that could be inaccurate.”\nAccording to Ridenhour, the next step is to create a committee made up of county staff members to help oversee how the technology is used.\n“The makeup of it is different departments, and one individual from each department that represents them. That way, we have a better-rounded idea of how it's going to influence the overall county.”\nRidenhour also pointed to AI disclosures used by social media platforms as an example of how the county could identify AI-generated content.\nHe said he would like the county to consider a similar disclaimer when AI is used to create content released by the county.\nThe county is also transitioning toward using Microsoft Copilot through Microsoft 365. Ridenhour said the county is still working through the licensing process.\nCounty officials have not announced a timeline for when the new AI guidelines will be finalized.\nCheck back for updates.","excerpt":"(KMIZ)\nCole County is working on new guidelines for how employees can use artificial intelligence, particularly when it comes to protecting sensitive county information and ensuring AI-generated information is accurate. Cole County Presiding Commissioner Sam Bushman told ABC 17 the county is still in the “premature stages” of developing guidelines for AI use.","extraction":{"state":"ok","confidence":0.9,"error":null,"explanation":"High confidence: full text extraction produced 2939 characters.","diagnostics_url":"/api/diagnose?url=https%3A//abc17news.com/news/cole/2026/09/26/cole-county-developing-guidelines-for-employee-use-of-artificial-intelligence/","quality_profile":{"profile_version":"extraction_quality.v2","bucket":"high","confidence":0.9,"failure_kind":"none","retryable":false,"retry_after_attempts":0,"reason":"High confidence: full text extraction produced 2939 characters.","operator_guidance":{"severity":"ok","recommended_action":"trust_full_text","next_step":"Use the extracted full text as the primary article source.","operator_label":"Ready","can_retry":false,"can_use_summary":false,"diagnostics_required":false},"content_depth":{"contract_version":"content_depth.v1","category":"full_text","label":"Full text","has_full_text":true,"has_summary":true,"content_length":2939,"summary_length":361,"usable_text_length":2939,"source_field":"content"},"legacy_collapsed":false,"signals":{"extract_state":"ok","extract_error":null,"extract_retries":0,"content_length":2939,"summary_length":361}}},"display_formats":["compact","card","full","digest_section","json"]},"daily_stack_record":{"title":"Cole County developing guidelines for employee use of artificial intelligence - ABC17NEWS","url":"https://abc17news.com/news/cole/2026/09/26/cole-county-developing-guidelines-for-employee-use-of-artificial-intelligence/","summary":"(KMIZ)\nCole County is working on new guidelines for how employees can use artificial intelligence, particularly when it comes to protecting sensitive county information and ensuring AI-generated information is accurate. Cole County Presiding Commissioner Sam Bushman told ABC 17 the county is still in the “premature stages” of developing guidelines for AI use.","source":"ABC17NEWS","date":"2026-09-26T15:55:23+00:00","content":"COLE COUNTY, Mo. (KMIZ)\nCole County is working on new guidelines for how employees can use artificial intelligence, particularly when it comes to protecting sensitive county information and ensuring AI-generated information is accurate.\nCole County Presiding Commissioner Sam Bushman told ABC 17 the county is still in the “premature stages” of developing guidelines for AI use.\nInformation Systems Director Brian Ridenhour presented the commission with a rough draft last week outlining several principles for the county to consider, including transparency, explainability, accountability and human oversight.\nThat human oversight would be especially important when AI is used for decisions that could significantly affect a person, Ridenhour said. He emphasized that AI should not be responsible for making critical decisions.\nThe goal is to establish clear expectations for employees as AI technology continues to develop.\nRidenhour said he has not seen a problem with the county's current use of AI, but he wants to put guidelines in place before potential issues arise.\nOne area of concern is what information employees enter into AI systems.\n“It’s our responsibility as county employees and elected officials that we use that properly and that we don’t put anything within an OpenAI model that could be used for private information,” Ridenhour said.\nAI can be useful for everyday tasks, such as formatting emails and memos. But Ridenhour said employees need to be more cautious when using county data, particularly with publicly available AI systems such as Google Gemini.\nEmployees should not enter proprietary or sensitive county information into those systems.\n“We don't want to put HIPAA-related information in there or PII.”\nProtecting information is not the only issue the county is considering. Officials also want employees to understand that AI-generated responses may not always be accurate.\n“You might be able to drop something into there, and it gives you some results. But if you don't vet those results, then that could be inaccurate.”\nAccording to Ridenhour, the next step is to create a committee made up of county staff members to help oversee how the technology is used.\n“The makeup of it is different departments, and one individual from each department that represents them. That way, we have a better-rounded idea of how it's going to influence the overall county.”\nRidenhour also pointed to AI disclosures used by social media platforms as an example of how the county could identify AI-generated content.\nHe said he would like the county to consider a similar disclaimer when AI is used to create content released by the county.\nThe county is also transitioning toward using Microsoft Copilot through Microsoft 365. Ridenhour said the county is still working through the licensing process.\nCounty officials have not announced a timeline for when the new AI guidelines will be finalized.\nCheck back for updates.","confidence":0.9,"diagnostics_url":"/api/diagnose?url=https%3A//abc17news.com/news/cole/2026/09/26/cole-county-developing-guidelines-for-employee-use-of-artificial-intelligence/","quality_bucket":"high","failure_kind":"none","retryable":false,"quality_reason":"High confidence: full text extraction produced 2939 characters.","quality_profile":{"profile_version":"extraction_quality.v2","bucket":"high","confidence":0.9,"failure_kind":"none","retryable":false,"retry_after_attempts":0,"reason":"High confidence: full text extraction produced 2939 characters.","operator_guidance":{"severity":"ok","recommended_action":"trust_full_text","next_step":"Use the extracted full text as the primary article source.","operator_label":"Ready","can_retry":false,"can_use_summary":false,"diagnostics_required":false},"content_depth":{"contract_version":"content_depth.v1","category":"full_text","label":"Full text","has_full_text":true,"has_summary":true,"content_length":2939,"summary_length":361,"usable_text_length":2939,"source_field":"content"},"legacy_collapsed":false,"signals":{"extract_state":"ok","extract_error":null,"extract_retries":0,"content_length":2939,"summary_length":361}},"tags":[]},"fallback_formats":["markdown","json","html"],"actions":{"read":"/item/90844","export_markdown":"/api/items/90844/export?format=markdown","export_json":"/api/items/90844/export?format=json","diagnose":"/api/diagnose?url=https%3A//abc17news.com/news/cole/2026/09/26/cole-county-developing-guidelines-for-employee-use-of-artificial-intelligence/"},"formats":{"full":{"id":90844,"title":"Cole County developing guidelines for employee use of artificial intelligence - ABC17NEWS","url":"https://abc17news.com/news/cole/2026/09/26/cole-county-developing-guidelines-for-employee-use-of-artificial-intelligence/","source":"ABC17NEWS","author":null,"published_at":"2026-09-26T15:55:23+00:00","locale":"en","topic":"ai","tags":[],"excerpt":"(KMIZ)\nCole County is working on new guidelines for how employees can use artificial intelligence, particularly when it comes to protecting sensitive county information and ensuring AI-generated information is accurate. Cole County Presiding Commissioner Sam Bushman told ABC 17 the county is still in the “premature stages” of developing guidelines for AI use.","full_text":"COLE COUNTY, Mo. (KMIZ)\nCole County is working on new guidelines for how employees can use artificial intelligence, particularly when it comes to protecting sensitive county information and ensuring AI-generated information is accurate.\nCole County Presiding Commissioner Sam Bushman told ABC 17 the county is still in the “premature stages” of developing guidelines for AI use.\nInformation Systems Director Brian Ridenhour presented the commission with a rough draft last week outlining several principles for the county to consider, including transparency, explainability, accountability and human oversight.\nThat human oversight would be especially important when AI is used for decisions that could significantly affect a person, Ridenhour said. He emphasized that AI should not be responsible for making critical decisions.\nThe goal is to establish clear expectations for employees as AI technology continues to develop.\nRidenhour said he has not seen a problem with the county's current use of AI, but he wants to put guidelines in place before potential issues arise.\nOne area of concern is what information employees enter into AI systems.\n“It’s our responsibility as county employees and elected officials that we use that properly and that we don’t put anything within an OpenAI model that could be used for private information,” Ridenhour said.\nAI can be useful for everyday tasks, such as formatting emails and memos. But Ridenhour said employees need to be more cautious when using county data, particularly with publicly available AI systems such as Google Gemini.\nEmployees should not enter proprietary or sensitive county information into those systems.\n“We don't want to put HIPAA-related information in there or PII.”\nProtecting information is not the only issue the county is considering. Officials also want employees to understand that AI-generated responses may not always be accurate.\n“You might be able to drop something into there, and it gives you some results. But if you don't vet those results, then that could be inaccurate.”\nAccording to Ridenhour, the next step is to create a committee made up of county staff members to help oversee how the technology is used.\n“The makeup of it is different departments, and one individual from each department that represents them. That way, we have a better-rounded idea of how it's going to influence the overall county.”\nRidenhour also pointed to AI disclosures used by social media platforms as an example of how the county could identify AI-generated content.\nHe said he would like the county to consider a similar disclaimer when AI is used to create content released by the county.\nThe county is also transitioning toward using Microsoft Copilot through Microsoft 365. Ridenhour said the county is still working through the licensing process.\nCounty officials have not announced a timeline for when the new AI guidelines will be finalized.\nCheck back for updates.","reading_time_min":2,"extraction":{"state":"ok","confidence":0.9,"error":null,"explanation":"High confidence: full text extraction produced 2939 characters.","diagnostics_url":"/api/diagnose?url=https%3A//abc17news.com/news/cole/2026/09/26/cole-county-developing-guidelines-for-employee-use-of-artificial-intelligence/","quality_profile":{"profile_version":"extraction_quality.v2","bucket":"high","confidence":0.9,"failure_kind":"none","retryable":false,"retry_after_attempts":0,"reason":"High confidence: full text extraction produced 2939 characters.","operator_guidance":{"severity":"ok","recommended_action":"trust_full_text","next_step":"Use the extracted full text as the primary article source.","operator_label":"Ready","can_retry":false,"can_use_summary":false,"diagnostics_required":false},"content_depth":{"contract_version":"content_depth.v1","category":"full_text","label":"Full text","has_full_text":true,"has_summary":true,"content_length":2939,"summary_length":361,"usable_text_length":2939,"source_field":"content"},"legacy_collapsed":false,"signals":{"extract_state":"ok","extract_error":null,"extract_retries":0,"content_length":2939,"summary_length":361}}},"quality_profile":{"profile_version":"extraction_quality.v2","bucket":"high","confidence":0.9,"failure_kind":"none","retryable":false,"retry_after_attempts":0,"reason":"High confidence: full text extraction produced 2939 characters.","operator_guidance":{"severity":"ok","recommended_action":"trust_full_text","next_step":"Use the extracted full text as the primary article source.","operator_label":"Ready","can_retry":false,"can_use_summary":false,"diagnostics_required":false},"content_depth":{"contract_version":"content_depth.v1","category":"full_text","label":"Full text","has_full_text":true,"has_summary":true,"content_length":2939,"summary_length":361,"usable_text_length":2939,"source_field":"content"},"legacy_collapsed":false,"signals":{"extract_state":"ok","extract_error":null,"extract_retries":0,"content_length":2939,"summary_length":361}},"actions":{"read":"/item/90844","export_markdown":"/api/items/90844/export?format=markdown","export_json":"/api/items/90844/export?format=json","diagnose":"/api/diagnose?url=https%3A//abc17news.com/news/cole/2026/09/26/cole-county-developing-guidelines-for-employee-use-of-artificial-intelligence/"}},"digest":{"id":90844,"title":"Cole County developing guidelines for employee use of artificial intelligence - ABC17NEWS","url":"https://abc17news.com/news/cole/2026/09/26/cole-county-developing-guidelines-for-employee-use-of-artificial-intelligence/","source":"ABC17NEWS","topic":"ai","published_at":"2026-09-26T15:55:23+00:00","excerpt":"(KMIZ) Cole County is working on new guidelines for how employees can use artificial intelligence, particularly when it comes to protecting sensitive county information and ensuring AI-generated information is accurate. Cole County Presiding Commissioner Sam Bushman told ABC 17…","quality_bucket":"high","quality_reason":"High confidence: full text extraction produced 2939 characters.","reading_time_min":2,"cluster_id":null},"card":{"display_title":"Cole County developing guidelines for employee use of artificial intelligence - ABC17NEWS","subtitle":"ABC17NEWS · 2026-09-26","summary":"(KMIZ) Cole County is working on new guidelines for how employees can use artificial intelligence, particularly when it comes to protecting sensitive county information and ensuring AI-generated information is accurate.…","badges":["quality:high"],"links":{"read":"/item/90844","original":"https://abc17news.com/news/cole/2026/09/26/cole-county-developing-guidelines-for-employee-use-of-artificial-intelligence/","diagnose":"/api/diagnose?url=https%3A//abc17news.com/news/cole/2026/09/26/cole-county-developing-guidelines-for-employee-use-of-artificial-intelligence/"},"quality_warning":null},"export":{"title":"Cole County developing guidelines for employee use of artificial intelligence - ABC17NEWS","url":"https://abc17news.com/news/cole/2026/09/26/cole-county-developing-guidelines-for-employee-use-of-artificial-intelligence/","summary":"(KMIZ)\nCole County is working on new guidelines for how employees can use artificial intelligence, particularly when it comes to protecting sensitive county information and ensuring AI-generated information is accurate. Cole County Presiding Commissioner Sam Bushman told ABC 17 the county is still in the “premature stages” of developing guidelines for AI use.","source":"ABC17NEWS","date":"2026-09-26T15:55:23+00:00","content":"COLE COUNTY, Mo. (KMIZ)\nCole County is working on new guidelines for how employees can use artificial intelligence, particularly when it comes to protecting sensitive county information and ensuring AI-generated information is accurate.\nCole County Presiding Commissioner Sam Bushman told ABC 17 the county is still in the “premature stages” of developing guidelines for AI use.\nInformation Systems Director Brian Ridenhour presented the commission with a rough draft last week outlining several principles for the county to consider, including transparency, explainability, accountability and human oversight.\nThat human oversight would be especially important when AI is used for decisions that could significantly affect a person, Ridenhour said. He emphasized that AI should not be responsible for making critical decisions.\nThe goal is to establish clear expectations for employees as AI technology continues to develop.\nRidenhour said he has not seen a problem with the county's current use of AI, but he wants to put guidelines in place before potential issues arise.\nOne area of concern is what information employees enter into AI systems.\n“It’s our responsibility as county employees and elected officials that we use that properly and that we don’t put anything within an OpenAI model that could be used for private information,” Ridenhour said.\nAI can be useful for everyday tasks, such as formatting emails and memos. But Ridenhour said employees need to be more cautious when using county data, particularly with publicly available AI systems such as Google Gemini.\nEmployees should not enter proprietary or sensitive county information into those systems.\n“We don't want to put HIPAA-related information in there or PII.”\nProtecting information is not the only issue the county is considering. Officials also want employees to understand that AI-generated responses may not always be accurate.\n“You might be able to drop something into there, and it gives you some results. But if you don't vet those results, then that could be inaccurate.”\nAccording to Ridenhour, the next step is to create a committee made up of county staff members to help oversee how the technology is used.\n“The makeup of it is different departments, and one individual from each department that represents them. That way, we have a better-rounded idea of how it's going to influence the overall county.”\nRidenhour also pointed to AI disclosures used by social media platforms as an example of how the county could identify AI-generated content.\nHe said he would like the county to consider a similar disclaimer when AI is used to create content released by the county.\nThe county is also transitioning toward using Microsoft Copilot through Microsoft 365. Ridenhour said the county is still working through the licensing process.\nCounty officials have not announced a timeline for when the new AI guidelines will be finalized.\nCheck back for updates.","confidence":0.9,"diagnostics_url":"/api/diagnose?url=https%3A//abc17news.com/news/cole/2026/09/26/cole-county-developing-guidelines-for-employee-use-of-artificial-intelligence/","quality_bucket":"high","failure_kind":"none","retryable":false,"quality_reason":"High confidence: full text extraction produced 2939 characters.","quality_profile":{"profile_version":"extraction_quality.v2","bucket":"high","confidence":0.9,"failure_kind":"none","retryable":false,"retry_after_attempts":0,"reason":"High confidence: full text extraction produced 2939 characters.","operator_guidance":{"severity":"ok","recommended_action":"trust_full_text","next_step":"Use the extracted full text as the primary article source.","operator_label":"Ready","can_retry":false,"can_use_summary":false,"diagnostics_required":false},"content_depth":{"contract_version":"content_depth.v1","category":"full_text","label":"Full text","has_full_text":true,"has_summary":true,"content_length":2939,"summary_length":361,"usable_text_length":2939,"source_field":"content"},"legacy_collapsed":false,"signals":{"extract_state":"ok","extract_error":null,"extract_retries":0,"content_length":2939,"summary_length":361}},"tags":[],"format_contract_version":"news_item_formats.v1"}}}