Written comments on the Bureau of Labor Statistics proposed American Time Use Survey Artificial Intelligence Questions are due on or before September 8, 2026, to Erin Good, the BLS clearance officer, under Federal Register document 2026-13928, published July 10 as 91 FR 42775.[1][2] The ACTION line is a request for comment. FederalRegister.gov is an unofficial XML copy, so anyone who needs legal notice should use the official edition on govinfo.[1][2]
The notice asks for comment on a new module. It does not report survey findings. BLS writes that despite the growth of AI applications, there are currently no federal surveys that link individuals' use of AI to a detailed record of their activities.[1] Pairing new AI questions with the ATUS time diary, it says, would let researchers and policymakers understand when, how, and for which tasks people use AI tools.[1] Existing federal surveys may collect limited information on technology use, but none provide activity-level detail or link AI use to a continuous 24-hour record, according to the same notice.[1]
That diary already has a start and stop time. The ATUS User Guide describes a one-time interview about the previous day, drawn from households that finished their eighth Current Population Survey month, with one randomly selected person age 15 or older and no proxy responses.[3] Interviewers collect a detailed account starting at 4 a.m. the previous day and ending at 4 a.m. on the interview day, including how long each activity lasted and, for most activities, who was present and where it took place.[3] The Census Bureau conducts the interviews from its telephone center.[3]
The proposed add-on is short on the page. Office of Management and Budget clearance is being sought under OMB Number 1220-NEW.[1] If cleared, BLS plans to field the questions beginning in January 2027 for a two-year period.[1] The AI items would supplement the ATUS by identifying whether individuals have used AI tools, the tasks for which they use AI, how use varies across demographic and occupational groups, and how AI use relates to time spent in work, education, household production, and leisure.[1] BLS estimates 7,672 annual respondents, two minutes per response, and 256 burden hours.[1] That two-minute figure is a BLS burden estimate, not an observed interview length. Comments will be summarized and may be included in the later request for OMB approval; they also become a matter of public record.[1] None of those counts is a substitute for the actual items.
That published notice still does not print those questions. It says a copy of the proposed information collection request can be obtained by contacting the clearance officer listed in the ADDRESSES section.[1] The current public ATUS questionnaire, revised in June 2026 for 2011-25 interviews, covers the standing survey under OMB control 1220-0175 and does not itself publish this AI module.[4] A commenter who wants to evaluate practical utility, burden, or clarity, which is what section III of the notice asks for, is being asked to judge an instrument that is not in the Federal Register text.[1]
BLS cites 29 U.S.C. 2 as the mission authority for collecting labor-market and emerging-trend data.[1][5] That statute authorizes statistics. It does not define an AI tool, and the July 10 notice does not either. Hypernovelty mapped this proposal in July as The Tool Enters the Time Diary, when the comment window opened.[6] The remaining public fact on September 8 is the close of that window with the wording still off the page.
This remains a Paperwork Reduction Act comment request. It creates no duty to answer AI questions today, no cleared questionnaire, and no finding about how Americans use these tools. A later diary can show where a person reported an activity. It cannot, by itself, prove that a tool saved time, raised productivity, displaced a job, or caused the allocation that appears on the grid. This is orientation, not statistical-design, legal, labor, or investment advice.
Verification bottleneck
The scarce check is whether a two-minute AI-use module can be joined to a 4 a.m.-to-4 a.m. diary when the public comment record still lacks the question wording.
- A comment deadline can close on an information-collection notice before the actual items appear in the Federal Register text.
- BLS, OMB reviewers, and later data users would have to verify what counted as an AI tool, which diary activity it attached to, and whether simultaneous or background use was even in scope.
- Watch the later OMB clearance package for 1220-NEW, whether January 2027 fielding survives, and whether the instrument published with that package defines the tool rather than only naming the topics.
Opportunities
Where value may appear is an instrument-and-diary worksheet for one sample day. For a single reconstructed 24-hour grid it would record each activity, whether any AI tool was claimed, which software or feature was meant, whether that use was the main activity or a simultaneous one, and which of the four notice topics (use, tasks, group variation, time-use relation) the item could actually support. Statistical conclusions stay with qualified survey methodologists. Idea fodder only.
A lighter companion is a comment-packet checklist against section III: practical utility, burden estimate, clarity, and respondent burden, filled only from the published notice plus any ICR pages actually obtained from the clearance officer.
Sources
[1] Bureau of Labor Statistics, "Proposed Information Collection; ATUS Artificial Intelligence (AI) Questions," request for comment, 91 FR 42775, July 10, 2026, FR Doc. 2026-13928. https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2026/07/10/2026-13928/proposed-information-collection-atus-artificial-intelligence-ai-questions
[2] Official PDF, 91 FR 42775. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2026-07-10/pdf/2026-13928.pdf
[3] Bureau of Labor Statistics, American Time Use Survey User's Guide: Understanding ATUS 2003 to 2025. https://www.bls.gov/tus/atususersguide.pdf
[4] Bureau of Labor Statistics, ATUS Questionnaires, including the June 2026 public questionnaire (OMB 1220-0175). https://www.bls.gov/tus/questionnaires.htm
[5] 29 U.S.C. § 2. https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/29/2
[6] Hypernovelty Institute, "The Tool Enters the Time Diary," July 22, 2026. https://hypernovelty.institute/signals/the-tool-enters-the-time-diary/