The government is enlisting AI to help decide what public records you get to see

The Department of Homeland Security says it will use the technology to “revolutionize” how the agency handles redactions.

Redactions are the Freedom of Information Act requester’s bane. Those black boxes that often hide wide swaths of words when the government finally delivers on a request for public records. While even the most ardent openness advocate will grant that some information — such as Social Security numbers — needs to be redacted, almost all requesters believe the government uses redactions to hide far more than it should.

Now, federal agencies are embarking on a possibly game-changing project to speed up the handling of FOIA requests: using artificial intelligence to turbocharge redactions.