Revamping Turkey's e-Government with AI: A Governance Challenge

Turkey's e-Government Gateway, known as e-Devlet, serves over 68 million users with an extensive offering of more than 9,200 digital services. As demand grows, so does the platform's reliance on AI technologies, including chatbots and eligibility tools. However, the integration of AI presents a daunting challenge: the lack of a structured governance infrastructure necessary to connect high-level policy frameworks to practical, real-world deployment.

Bridging Policy and Practice

While Turkey has made strides with its National AI Strategy, this framework remains largely theoretical without a tangible bridge to the operational practices required within e-Devlet. Enter GovAI-Pipe, a governance pipeline designed to map the AI model lifecycle to specific checkpoints, ensuring adherence to global standards like the EU AI Act and the OECD AI Principles. This matters because, without such a bridge, the risk of AI malpractices looms large. Are we willing to rely on AI systems without fully understanding or controlling their implications?

The GovAI-Pipe Framework

GovAI-Pipe, developed using Design Science Research methodology, establishes a four-layer checkpoint system: pre-deployment validation, deployment governance, runtime monitoring, and post-incident governance. Each layer is meticulously tied to legal frameworks such as the GDPR and national policies. For instance, pre-deployment includes testing for bias, explainability, and privacy impacts, essential steps given AI's propensity for unintended consequences.

Deployment governance further classifies risks and approves workflows, while runtime monitoring ensures continuous oversight with drift detection and fairness tracking. Post-incident governance ties up loose ends with audit trails and citizen redress, closing the loop on AI deployment. are undeniably significant: How do we maintain human agency and control in an increasingly automated system?

The Real-World Impact

This framework isn't just theoretical. It's demonstrated through high-risk use cases within e-Devlet, showing how GovAI-Pipe operationalizes governance principles into technical components. This operationalization is critical for maintaining public trust and ensuring that AI systems not only comply with regulations but also align with societal values. of governance as merely bureaucratic red tape. In reality, it's a necessary scaffolding for ethical AI deployment.

The deeper question remains: As we implement these governance structures, will they evolve quickly enough to keep pace with technological advancements? The stakes are high. Without effective governance, AI risks becoming an unregulated force, shaping citizen interactions and government operations in unpredictable ways.