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Reg Explorer — Ohio's AI Tool for Eliminating Obsolete Regulatory Text

United States of America · Columbus · See the United States of America profile

Ohio's Common Sense Initiative uses an AI text-analytics tool, Reg Explorer, to scan the state's roughly 15-million-word regulatory code for obsolete and redundant language, removing over 2 million words and 900 rules so far, including 600,000 words from the building code alone.

2,000,000+
Words removed from regulatory code
~900
Rules removed
600,000
Words removed from the state building code alone
44 US$ million
Projected savings by 2033 (unaudited administration estimate)
58,000 hours
Projected labour hours saved by 2033 (unaudited administration estimate)
Reg Explorer — Ohio's AI Tool for Eliminating Obsolete Regulatory Text

Details

Maturity
Scaling
Promoter
Ohio Common Sense Initiative (Office of the Lieutenant Governor) / InnovateOhio
Period
2020–present
Keywords
public sector, regulatory reform, government efficiency, legal technology

Context

Ohio's Common Sense Initiative, run from the Office of Lieutenant Governor Jon Husted with InnovateOhio, deployed an AI text-analytics tool called Reg Explorer to comb through the state's Revised and Administrative Codes — roughly 15 million words of regulatory text accumulated over two centuries — looking for obsolete, redundant or contradictory language.

Activities

The tool flags candidate obsolete or redundant provisions, such as lingering references to telegraphs and cassette tapes, for removal. The state has set a target of removing 5 million words, roughly one-third of the code, by mid-2025, working toward a 2022 state law mandating a 30% cut in regulatory volume.

Results

The tool has already flagged and enabled the removal of more than 2 million words and about 900 rules, including 600,000 words cut from the state building code alone. Husted's office projects the effort will save $44 million in tax dollars and 58,000 hours of labour by 2033, though these are the administration's own forward-looking estimates.

Conclusions

No external auditor has yet verified the full inventory of removed provisions or the projected savings, and the tool's design — described by Husted as akin to 'a more advanced version of a grammar checker' — has not been published for independent technical review.

Implementation
Indicative cost
Low (< €50k)
Time to results
Long (> 3 years)
Staffing & skills
Ohio Common Sense Initiative (Office of the Lieutenant Governor) staff, InnovateOhio technical partnership

Conditions for success

  • Statutory mandate (2022 Ohio law requiring 30% cut in regulatory volume) to drive adoption
  • AI tool used to flag candidate obsolete/redundant text for human review

Common failure modes

  • No external audit has verified the full inventory of removed provisions or the projected savings
  • Tool's technical design not published for independent review

Where it fits

Governance type
state government
Scale
statewide
Income level
high-income

Data sources

Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.

Attachments

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