The lab currently hosts three dual PhD candidates employed by the Government Organisation for Information Management (RvIHH), and expects to expand to five within the first year. The day-to-day management is in the hands of lab manager Dr. David Graus. Scientific co-directors are Dr. Ir. Jaap Kamps (Institute for Logic, Language, and Computation, UvA) and Dr. Maarten Marx (Informatics Institute, UvA).

“Many of the advances in Information Retrieval and Natural Language Processing can be directly applied to improving access and use of open government data,” says lab manager Dr. David Graus. “I believe these technologies can truly help create a more transparent government and a better-informed society.”

AI for Open Government

The ICAI OpenGov Lab develops tailored AI technologies for all aspects of open government data. Government transparency is central in a democratic society, and increasingly, governments at all levels are required to publish dath both proactively and in response to requests (e.g., via the Open Government Act, or WOO). The lab’s mission is to improve and support the interpretation, retrieval, and use of open government data, to increase transparency, public trust, and ultimately democratic participation. By collaborating with government, researchers, journalists, and citizens, the lab addresses the entire information ‘lifecycle’ of open government data: from creation and disclosure (supply) to its responsible use and societal impact (demand). In doing so, the ICAI OpenGov Lab aims to improve government information practices and empower citizens to engage more actively in public discourse and decision-making.

Within the lab, researchers use the latest methods in information retrieval and natural language processing, including Large Language Models (LLMs), Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) and generative AI. This allows for improved retrieval, enrichment, and interpretation of large collections of government documents. In this way, the ICAI OpenGov Lab aims to make an important contribution to the Open Government ideals of transparency, accountability and increased participation.

“We are building a growing team of researchers using AI to publish, manage, search, retrieve, summarize, and explain open government information,” says co-director Dr. Maarten Marx. “We’re impressed by the enthusiasm of students to help improve the government’s information services.”

WooGLe as a Living Lab

Where possible, the projects in the ICAI OpenGov Lab aim to use the WooGLe search engine as a living lab. WooGLe provides freely accessible search on publicly disclosed government documents. The data enrichments and software developed by the lab will also be published open source. As a result, the knowledge and technology that is created in the lab can be widely used and re-used.

In addition, the lab works intensively with various partners. PhD candidates will be hired to conduct research into various aspects of information access, retrieval and natural language processing, where new scientific insights go hand in hand with practical applications.

“This gives us the opportunity to tackle complex technical challenges with real-world impact,” says co-director Dr. ir. Jaap Kamps. “We’re dealing with large-scale, complex information that can no longer be handled manually. With the responsible use of AI, we can take major steps in the ways in which citizens and journalists access and make sense of government information. This is an important step towards bridging the gap between citizens and government.”

About ICAI (Innovation Center for Artificial Intelligence)

ICAI is a national partnership between academic institutions, industry, and government, dedicated to AI innovation and talent development. Within ICAI labs, researchers and organizations work closely together on cutting-edge AI research and applications that provide direct societal value.