[mbrubeck]

"Helped create it" might be an exaggeration, but they definitely had a hand in its creation and have trumpeted its use: http://www.uspto.gov/news/pr/2012/12-60.jsp

From the Stack Exchange blog post, "[USPTO director Kappos] came–twice!–to the Stack Exchange office in New York City to encourage us to open a Stack Exchange site that would generate heaps of prior art to help the patent examiners do their jobs."

Last year, then-acting USPTO director Rea said in a speech, "We consulted on a private-sector initiative called Ask Patents." http://www.uspto.gov/news/speeches/2013/rea_Managing_Ip.jsp Elsewhere they refer to a "partnership" with Ask Patents.

No, this doesn't mean that prior art submitted to Ask Patents is automatically read by the USPTO. But USPTO promotes it as a way to gather information which can then be submitted through their new public comment process.