Our December AI in Public Health Community of Practice session tackled one of the most pressing questions facing health departments today: what are the legal risks of using AI tools?
We were joined by Meghan Mead, Deputy Director for the Mid-States Region at the Network for Public Health Law, who walked us through her recently published fact sheet, Generative AI and Health Departments: Legal Considerations and Risks.
The Current State of AI Regulation
There's no comprehensive federal AI legislation yet, but states have been active, introducing hundreds of bills on AI privacy, transparency, and governance. For health departments, this patchwork of regulation creates uncertainty. Adding to the complexity, existing laws like HIPAA and state open records statutes already apply to AI use, even though they were written long before generative AI existed.
Legal Risks Health Departments Should Know About
Meghan highlighted three key areas of legal risk for public health agencies using AI:
- Public records: AI prompts and outputs may be subject to open records requests. Several jurisdictions have already issued guidance clarifying that generative AI interactions related to government business constitute public records.
- Data privacy: Inputting protected health information into a free AI tool could violate HIPAA or state confidentiality laws. Health departments should verify whether their AI tools are appropriate for handling sensitive data.
- Copyright: AI models trained on copyrighted material can reproduce that content. While lawsuits against health departments are unlikely, the reputational risk of publishing infringing content is real.
Getting Started Without Dedicated Legal or IT Staff
For health departments with limited resources, Meghan recommended starting with a simple AI use policy, training staff on what's allowed, and beginning with low-risk use cases like drafting emails or administrative tasks. Templates are available to help departments get started without building policies from scratch. F&T Labs has put together a great resource on 12 Things Your AI for Public Health Policy Needs.
The Network for Public Health Law also offers free technical assistance to public health departments navigating legal questions around AI and other emerging issues.
Resources
Join the Conversation
The AI in Public Health Community of Practice is a peer learning community for local and state health department professionals. We meet monthly to share challenges, learn from each other, and navigate AI together in a vendor-free space.
Check our AI Community of Practice page for details on our next session.
Join Our Next Session Let's TalkInterested in any of the topics covered here? We'd love the opportunity to talk with you.
