FOIA Advisor

FOIA News: E-discovery tools for FOIA

FOIA News (2015-2023)Allan BlutsteinComment

How Tech-Assisted Review is Transforming FOIA

Government is beginning to adopt AI tools to expedite its obligation of records transparency.

By Katherine MacPhail, Gov’t CIO Mag., Aug. 24, 2022

The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) process has frequently been plagued with delays, but the massive surge in data production over the past decade means that this problem is only growing. Tackling all of the outstanding FOIA requests manually is not simply burdensome — it is nigh impossible.  

“None of us have time to read a petabyte of data in our lifetime,” said John Facciola, retired U.S. magistrate judge and Georgetown adjunct professor of law, during a Digital Government Institute 930gov panel Tuesday.

That’s where AI comes in. Agencies are turning to technology assisted review tools that were originally developed for the eDiscovery process.

Read more here.