The Food and Drug Administration launched Elsa, an artificial intelligence assistant, on Monday to mixed reviews from employees who describe the tool as premature and error-prone.

FDA Commissioner Marty Makary touted the swift deployment, stating, “I set an aggressive timeline to scale AI agency-wide by June 30. Today’s rollout of Elsa is ahead of schedule and under budget, thanks to the collaboration of our in-house experts across the centers.”

The generative AI system aims to streamline clinical protocol reviews, scientific evaluations and inspection targeting. FDA Chief AI Officer Jeremy Walsh proclaimed, “Today marks the dawn of the AI era at the FDA. (W)ith the release of Elsa, AI is no longer a distant promise but a dynamic force enhancing and optimizing the performance and potenti

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