Tag: Philadelphia City Council

Artificial intelligence isn’t magic, professor Sorelle Friedler told a collection of city leaders, tech experts and social justice advocates gathered Wednesday for Philadelphia City Council’s hearing on the use of AI by city government.

“It’s important to understand that a lot of generative AI (chatbots) are just trained on the entire internet, that means they’re not necessarily trained to do what the city needs them to do,” said Friedler, who teaches computer science at Haverford College and is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institute. “They’re trained to give answers that are pleasing to people, that doesn’t necessarily mean correct answers. That means they’re good at wordsmithing things to sound pleasing, but that is not quite the same as delivering city services.”

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At City Council’s first hearing on the use of AI for government and services, multiple topics related to the technology were debated:  the different uses for AI, the definitions of artificial intelligence, the dangers of using it without proper safeguards. There also was discussion about who can be considered an authority on artificial intelligence.

“If anyone in the world would say that they were an AI expert, they would be lying, because it’s continuously transforming. It’s morphing into new technology,” said Melissa Scott, the chief information officer for the city’s Office of Innovation and Technology. “So you can be an expert on where AI is today, but three months from now it can be another way.”

Scott and Kristin Bray, the mayor’s chief legal counsel and the director of Philly Stat360 said the city is formulating its guides for AI use and that by the spring, guidelines will be issued to city employees about how they can use the technology on their jobs. Bray said OIT, the Law Department, the Office of Human Resources and the city’s chief administration officer are working together on the issue.

Leaders are also looking at how AI is being used in other cities around the country. City Councilmember Rue Landau (D-At-Large), who hosted the hearing, pointed out that the Philadelphia Police Department already uses AI systems connected to facial recognition software and gunshot detection technology.

Michaela Althouse/For PhillyVoice

(From left) City Councilmembers Anthony Phillips, Mark Squilla, Rue Landau, Isaiah Thomas and Nicolas O’Rourke at Wednesday’ hearing on AI.

Scott and Bray notably were unable to answer a number of questions about AI use in the city, including ways to ensure information isn’t being used by outside law enforcement, such as Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, without a digital warrant. 

Other speakers during Thursday’s hearing included a representative from Independence Blue Cross and experts from organizations such as TechTonic Justice and consulting firm CGI. Some called for safeguards against mistakes that could be made by the technology, especially in the areas of policing, education and healthcare. Another said that the rise in surveillance from public and private cameras was a “civil rights crisis” and said human rights need to be at the center of AI policy. 

Friedler provided examples of beneficials uses of AI in government, such as using it to streamline the backlog of cases the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. She also expressed concern about more widespread use, including the environmental and economic impacts.

“AI is like the modernization of a factory, it replaces people’s jobs with automation,” Friedler said. “The data centers that run AI take a huge physical footprint. They spew pollution into the surrounding neighborhoods and, as we’ve already seen in Philly, take so much energy that they increase all of our electricity costs.”