The state of Michigan imposes nearly 78,000 restrictions, contained in more than four million words. The vast majority of those rules do nothing to meaningfully protect public health and safety, though they do a great deal to restrict freedom and kill economic growth.

There are so many rules and regulations in Michigan’s administrative code that nobody can operate a business or live their lives without regularly violating the law.

Other states have used artificial intelligence to cut down on bloat and make sure regulations in the code are effective and meaningful. Only this new technology can analyze and propose key reforms this quickly and efficiently.

Here are some of the key ways Michigan lawmakers can use artificial intelligence to improve the lives of state residents:

• Review licenses, regulations and the legal code for possible changes. Michigan has tons of outdated laws, bizarre occupational licenses and arbitrary rules. The state has a Joint Committee on Administrative Rules and a Law Review Commission, but it is frequently inactive, and properly reviewing all the restrictions on the books would take years. The AI innovation office in Ohio has been able to eliminate 2.2 million duplicative, outdated or unnecessary rules.

• Process paperwork. Almost every person in Michigan uses the state for something: get a driver's license, register property, obtain a business license get a job certification, access benefits and much more. For an individual, some tasks can take months or even more than a year. For businesses, it can be worse. Understanding the permitting process and environmental review and getting approval from all the right public bodies and agencies is a chore. But new technology can make the process much smoother. Virginia has cut its review time in half through AI.

• Fighting fraud. The state government spends billions of dollars with much of that going out to companies, agencies and nonprofits contracted for services. The Michigan Office of Auditor General looks for red flags and consistently finds issues, but there is so much money being spent nowadays that people can’t catch everything. AI is at its best in taking huge amounts of data and synthesizing it. This means it can find anomalies and discrepancies that a human can then review to see if there is an issue.

• Speed up transparency. When people want information on their government, a key obstacle is the time and effort required to gather it. New technology can gather records which are requested via FOIA much more quickly (especially information being sought that is already public). AI can also gather meeting minutes and videos, review them, and get them up online more quickly and easily than people working without this new technology.

• Procurement and contracting. AI can automate repetitive tasks, review proposals and use predictive analytics to help the government pick the right companies, vendors or groups bidding on projects. Private companies have used AI to improve their purchasing; so can the state.

While other state leaders have embraced a playbook for AI success, Michigan has not. It’s time to act. Artificial intelligence can improve government efficiency and get the state back focused on what matters most.

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