A coalition of more than 500 officials from 200 local, county, and state governments across the United States is coming together to advance the responsible use of artificial intelligence.
Last week, the GovAI Coalition, led by technology officials from the city of San Jose, California, plans to convene government leaders, policy makers, and industry partners with the aim of giving local governments a voice in shaping the future of AI. A letter was published announcing the. In the letter, the group also said it wants to ensure the adoption of AI for the benefit of society.
San Jose Chief Information Officer Khaled Tawfiq told StateScoop that governments are becoming more proactive in developing policies around AI, in contrast to the passive attitude toward AI during the emergence of the internet and later social media. He said that a similar approach should be taken.
“If we wait for AI to become a problem, it's probably already too late,” Tawfik said. “What can we do now to more proactively understand our risks and plan to mitigate and learn from the history and mistakes our industry has made over the past 30 years?”
Albert Gehami, San Jose's privacy officer, said that while federal agencies such as the National Institute of Standards and Technology provide AI frameworks and guidelines, local agencies lack similar resources to dig into the details. He said there are many.
“We're kind of swimming through this without much knowledge of how things are going to turn out,” Gehami said. “That was a big boost for us. The idea of a coalition is to work out the details together, because we're all effectively using the same AI systems and trying to tackle the same problems. We can work on this together too. ”
Gehami said the creation of the coalition was also facilitated by the large amount of technology procured by local governments. And as more and more AI is added to the mix, Gehami starts asking vendors tough questions about bias and other complexities.
“We started compiling a list of questions for vendors and received answers ranging from extremely helpful to radio silence,” Gehami said. “That was a wake-up call for us to realize that we can’t do this alone. To have that seat at the table and be part of the conversation around AI development, we need partners. We realized that we needed to work together.”
The coalition provides free template policies, response plans, vendor contracts, and other resources for local governments to use. Organizers told StateScoop that coalition members frequently meet via Zoom to share resources and experiences and support each other as they navigate the world of AI.
Tawfik said the number of coalition members had grown rapidly since the coalition was launched in November, and that Gehami's laptop crashed during one coalition meeting due to “overwhelming demand” for Zoom. Ta.
“The gap is obvious to everyone. So if we're struggling with something, [the adoption of AI] Like everyone else, you can imagine what a small city with limited resources is going through,” Tawfik said.
The group is growing rapidly, and Tawfik and Gehami said they are encouraging more government agencies to join and exchange ideas on managing AI. The coalition will host a public forum on March 27th.
“We can't stop what we can do,” Tawfik said. “I was lucky to be in the right place at the right time with a passion to do something different.”
