OPM Launches AI Chatbot for Federal Workforce Data - MeriTalk

The Office of Personnel Management launched an AI-powered chatbot called FWD Chat on Oct. 7, according to a report from MeriTalk. The chatbot sits on OPM's Federal Workforce Data website. It allows users to ask questions about the federal civilian workforce in plain English, the report states.

According to MeriTalk, the chatbot uses ChatGPT Luna as its back-end large language model. The report identifies the launch date as Oct. 7 and the host site as the Federal Workforce Data website. The stated function is to let users query federal civilian workforce data by asking questions in ordinary language rather than through a structured interface. The excerpt of the report does not state how many users the chatbot has served, what the deployment cost, which vendor terms apply, or whether OPM evaluated the accuracy of the model's answers.

The launch places a large language model inside a public-facing federal data resource. OPM's Federal Workforce Data website publishes information about the federal civilian workforce, and FWD Chat is the interface the agency has added for questioning it. The item appeared in MeriTalk, which covers federal information technology. In the excerpt, no performance figures, error rates or user numbers accompany the announcement. The excerpt does not indicate whether additional models, datasets or agencies are part of the effort.