4/10/2026

UPPER MICHIGAN - Michigan officials are exploring the use of artificial intelligence to flag potential fraud in the state’s food assistance program, but legal experts say the technology could misidentify people who actually qualify. They caution that many payment issues are not fraud at all. Michelle Gilman is a legal expert on public benefits law, and she says many cases labeled as fraud are actually overpayments.

                    0:14  "Overpayment and underpayment, which are also a problem – but one we don't hear much about – are usually the result of innocent errors, given the complexity of these very complicated programs."

A 2024 report from the nonprofit Food Research and Action Center pointed to the risks of using A-I to determine eligibility for SNAP benefits. One of them is the biases of the humans training the machines. The Michigan League for Public Policy reported that as of July 2025, over a million Michiganders participated in SNAP.