About two months ago officials in Saratoga, Calif., released an AI platform known as Hamlet, which is able to take the City Council agenda and accompanying supporting documents, audio and video recordings, and other materials, and create a summary. The solution, Mayor Yan Zhao said during last month’s GovAI Coalition Summit* in San Jose, makes long and often complicated meetings “more easily digested,” and is intended to improve outreach and transparency.
“AI is democratizing knowledge. But it’s also democratizing how we engage with our residents,” Rochelle Haynes, managing director for What Works Cities, Results for America, said during a panel discussion she moderated at the summit. The event drew public- and private-sector leaders from across the country to discuss the emerging field of AI, and to develop use cases and a regulatory structure for the technology.
“A lot of our stuff is just in the experimental phase right now,” said Tim Moreland, administrator for the Department of Innovation Delivery and Performance in Chattanooga, Tenn.
His city is working on developing a chatbot that can understand city codes to help residents “ask questions, and then find the solution in the code,” Moreland said during the panel.
“There’s lots of little experiments, proof of concepts, but it’s all being done within what you would call our ‘safe bubble,’” he explained. “We haven’t gone outside of internal. But we hope to, once we have the confidence that we can put it out there.”
In Saratoga, years of city documents are being digitized, the prelude to the development of AI’s core diet — data.
“We started going back to the old records ... so that hopefully we can have an archive of the old information, so people can search to learn about what decisions were made, and what topics were discussed,” Zhao said during the panel.
Any AI application relies on a “strong, reliable database,” she said. “We’re trying to build a strong foundation for future operations.”
Government organizations are largely tiptoeing into the AI waters, but they are moving, and they should, observers said.
“Our initial response was, ‘Oh, hell no. We can’t let people access this,’” Moreland said, recalling the posture of extreme caution Chattanooga initially took around AI.
“People are using these tools. I guarantee it. So blocking it doesn’t really save us anything. We need to get in front of it and be proactive,” he said. The city has since created an internal working group to explore piloting and testing AI applications, “to kind of get comfortable with it. And I think we’re still in that process, and in that journey. But it’s been necessary.”
Zach Friend, a county supervisor in Santa Cruz, Calif., described AI as “social media part 2,” adding, “we didn’t get any of the regulatory frameworks correct on social media.”
“At the end of the day, you should create the regulatory framework that you want, that fits the values of your community, and get out in advance of it,” Friend told the room.
Santa Cruz is using AI for a document translation project to help serve the county’s large Spanish-speaking population, while another AI-enabled tool will help residents search planning commission meeting agendas, minutes and related documents. These projects fall into the kinds of safe spaces where AI can bring operational efficiencies with little risk, said Friend, who recommended officials start with data sources already in the public view.
“That is a great place to start with AI. That data has already been vetted and is out in the public,” the supervisor said. “And you don’t have to worry as much about starting these projects.”
*The GovAI Coalition Summit was hosted by Government Technology in partnership with the GovAI Coalition and the city of San Jose.
