Public-service AI accounts reach officials this week, and the signature stays theirs

This week, an official in a department office or a commune People’s Committee may receive a notice with a username, a link and a default password for the government’s AI platform for public service work, along with an October 20 deadline and a target of weekly use. Receiving the account is the easy part. The rest has not changed: the person who reviews, decides and answers for the result is still the official with authority, and the Ministry of Science and Technology’s criteria say so plainly.

What Official Letter 2350 asks for

On October 14, 2026, the Information Technology Industry Department (Ministry of Science and Technology) issued Official Letter 2350/CNCNTT-CL to the platform focal points of ministries, ministry-level agencies, central agencies and the People’s Committees of provinces and cities. According to the letter, accounts have essentially been issued in full from the lists the units submitted, but many focal points have not yet notified each official, civil servant, public employee and worker.

The letter asks for three things: notify each person of the account, the login details, the link and the user guide; urge people to log in and use the platform in their daily work; and, for first-time users, recommend changing the default password. The deadline is before October 20, 2026. For focal-point support, the letter lists contacts for two platforms, AI Luật and Clex. According to Nhân Dân newspaper, AI Luật is developed by MISA Joint Stock Company and Vietnam Law Media Joint Stock Company (LuatVietnam.vn), and Clex by CMC Technology Group.

The letter restates two targets from the Prime Minister’s decisions: 100% of officials, civil servants and public employees have an account and are trained to use the public-service AI assistant, and 100% use an artificial intelligence platform in their work every week. A further target is that 60% of the steering and administrative decisions of state agencies are supported by data and AI.

Where the national criteria put responsibility

In June 2026, the Minister of Science and Technology issued Decision 2847/QĐ-BKHCN, a set of criteria for selecting, piloting and deploying AI platforms that support public service work. The articles from the Hà Tĩnh government portal and VTV quote these principles:

• AI only supports advising, synthesis and analysis. The person with authority decides and is responsible.
• Results supplied by the platform “have reference value only and do not replace an administrative decision”.
• Every result must cite its legal basis down to the article, clause and point, and the platform must not invent a basis.
• Officials do not use the platform to process files, data or information that are state secrets.

These four sit in the criteria for the platform, that is, what the platform must be able to do. They also show what users are expected to do: treat the output as reference material.

The target measures use; responsibility sits with the signature

“Use every week” is a target for how much the platform is used. The letter does not say how use will be counted, or whether individuals will be assessed. Meanwhile, the criteria place responsibility on the person with authority to decide. The two fit together only if users treat the platform as a drafter: it searches and suggests, and the signer reads the basis before taking it as their own.

Because the platform must cite article, clause and point, the person submitting a file for signature can make that basis visible: the submission records the article, clause and point that were read, and the authorized signer relies on the original text, not on the platform’s answer.

Three things for the person receiving an account

If your agency already has rules for using the platform, those rules come first; beyond that, you can do these three things yourself:

1. Change the default password at your first login, as the letter recommends, then check the personal details in the account profile.
2. Write into the submission the article, clause and point you have read. Take an example made up for this article: the platform says a procedure needs documents A and B, citing “Article 8, clause 2”. You open that clause, check that A and B are really in it and whether the text is still in force or has been amended, then write “Article 8, clause 2, checked against the source” in the submission. If the clause says something different or cannot be found, the submission does not yet have enough basis to go to the signer.
3. Do not put files or data that are state secrets into the platform. If you are not sure whether a document counts, ask the responsible unit before pasting it in.

For people dealing with a state agency

If an agency replies to your file, the document may have been drafted with the help of this platform. Under the criteria, the AI’s result does not replace an administrative decision, so the signer is still the person with authority. When you need to ask why a file was handled a certain way, ask the agency and the basis it states, not the platform.

Sources

1. LuatVietnam, Official Letter 2350/CNCNTT-CL of October 14, 2026 of the Information Technology Industry Department — reposts the full text of the letter (with a stamped PDF): date of issue, recipients, the three requests, the October 20 deadline, the recommendation to change the default password, the 100% targets. LuatVietnam co-develops AI Luật; the content was checked against Nhân Dân newspaper and the People’s Court Journal.
2. Nhân Dân newspaper, “Urging use of the artificial intelligence platform supporting public service work” — confirms the requirement to notify each person of the account and the October 20 deadline; names the developers of AI Luật and Clex.
3. People’s Court Journal, “Ministry of Science and Technology asks for urgent rollout of the public-service AI platform” (October 15, 2026) — confirms the number of the letter, the three requests and the two decisions the letter cites.
4. Hà Tĩnh government portal, “National criteria for evaluating AI platforms supporting public service work issued” — the principles that AI only supports, results are for reference only, state secrets may not be processed, and results cite article, clause and point.
5. VTV, “AI platforms supporting public service work to be evaluated under new criteria” — confirms the principles of Decision 2847/QĐ-BKHCN.