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AI Policy

Pathways USA · Last updated November 3, 2026

Draft. This describes the Pathways app, which is not open yet. We will review and update it before launch. It is in English for now; translations are coming.

The short version

Why we use AI

Many people prepare for the citizenship interview alone, at odd hours, in a language that isn't English. AI lets Pathways explain things in your language, listen to your practice answers and give feedback right away. We use it to support learning, not to replace human tutors, and we review how it serves learners every year.

What AI never does in Pathways

Speaking practice

Some activities let you answer out loud. Your own web browser turns your speech into text using its built-in speech recognition (for example, Google's service in Chrome or Apple's in Safari). Pathways never receives, records or stores the audio. Your browser's speech provider processes the audio under its own terms, which Pathways does not control.

The text of what you said is used only to score your answer. It stays in the page's memory and is thrown away when you move on. It is never saved.

What is saved is a progress record for each practice item: your best and latest score, whether you were correct, how many times you tried, when you last practiced, and when to review it again. It is linked to your email address, never to your voice.

Where the app uses AI

Civics practice

To check a civics answer, the app sends three things to the AI service built into Base44, the platform Pathways runs on: the question, your answer as text, and the expected answer. No name, email or account information is sent. Your answer is not saved; only the progress record is.

Some answers change over time, such as who the President is. For those, the AI checks current public information on the web; the question and your answer are part of that check, but no account information is. Answers that depend on where you live, such as your senators, are checked against your saved "find your representative" result.

Mock interviews

You can practice with an AI officer. Your browser turns your speech into text, and the app sends that text, the question and the expected answer to the AI service to score content, grammar and fluency. When you finish, the app saves a score record: the overall score, pass or fail, and the scores for each question. What you said and the AI's feedback are never saved; they disappear when you leave the page.

Vía, your study buddy

Vía answers study questions in your chosen language, using the AI service built into Base44, with no web search. Your questions and Vía's answers are saved in your own study log, with your email, language and the time, so you can see past conversations. No one else in the app can see them, including tutors. Because conversations are stored and sent to an outside AI service, please don't share personal details with Vía.

Finding your representatives

The civics test can ask for your U.S. senators, representative, governor and state capital. To find them, the app starts with your zip code. If a zip code covers more than one district, it asks for a street address. These are sent to the AI service to find the officials. The street address is used only for that lookup and then cleared; it is never saved. The app keeps only the officials' names, your district and your state capital.

We never store home addresses, because for people going through the immigration process, a stored address could put them or their households at risk.

Finding help near you

The Resource Hub shows free legal help, classes, libraries and USCIS offices near you. If you share your location or type a zip code, it stays on your device. It is never saved, put in a web address, or sent to the AI or to Pathways. The map's background images come from OpenFreeMap, which, like any map service, can tell roughly which area is on screen.

Tutors

You can choose to connect with a tutor. A tutor sees information only about learners connected to them: practice scores, lesson activity, assignments, your display name and email, and your progress in the N-400 Question Guide. Tutors cannot see your conversations with Vía, your private notes, or any audio or transcripts. Messages between you and a tutor are stored in the app, so please don't share your immigration status, A-number, case details or home address in chat.

Your data and how to delete it

You own your data. The app's "Delete my data" option erases everything tied to your email: chat messages (both sides), Vía history, notes, practice progress, assignments, notifications, profile and tutor connections. Because both sides of a chat are deleted, the conversation also disappears for the other person. You can also write to info@pathwaysusa.org.

Outside AI providers

Pathways is built on Base44, which uses third-party AI providers. We have not yet confirmed exactly which providers Base44 uses for each feature. We are reviewing Base44's documentation and terms, and we will name the providers and their data practices here before the app opens. Their own data practices apply to the text they receive.

Fairness and oversight

AI can make mistakes, and it can serve some groups of learners worse than others, for example by misjudging accents. Before launch, we will check scoring against test sets that include many accents and make the app ask for a retry when speech recognition is unsure. After launch, we will run a fairness review every year. The founder of Pathways USA is responsible for every decision about AI and for this policy.

Laws we follow

We are working with legal advisors to confirm which data protection laws apply to Pathways and to make sure we meet them before launch.

Questions or concerns

If something the AI said seems wrong or worries you, tell us: info@pathwaysusa.org. Read our Privacy Policy for how this website and the waitlist handle your information.