Coalition Looks to Help Shape the Future of AI in Government

The City of San Jose is calling on government agencies to join its effort to help shape the future of artificial intelligence (AI) in the public sector.

In 2023, the City launched the GovAI Coalition with the intent of creating standards for responsible and purposeful use of AI in government. Led by the City of San Jose’s information technology department, the partnership has “evolved into a national movement for AI in the public sector,” according to a statement from the city, which notes that the collective now includes civic agencies from Austin, Texas, Cleveland, the City of San Diego and Colorado’s Department of Revenue, among others.

According to the City, the GovAI Coalition now boasts more than 400 public servants from more than 150 local, county and state governments, according to the City of San Jose, which encourages other organizations to join the group “to be better informed and understand local AI needs.”

To that end, the cooperative recently released an open letter and toolkit designed to help public sector agencies adopt and implement responsible AI practices.

“The Coalition’s priority will be to practice using the toolkit and implementing AI solutions to enhance civic services and public engagement,” according to the City of San Jose. “These tools have intentionally been aligned with emerging national standards and unify the needs of many local governments.”

Part of the coalition’s focus since forming in November has been the formation of a number of policy templates and knowledge-sharing tools that government agencies can use to “jumpstart their own AI governance program,” according to the City of San Jose, which highlighted some of these tools and templates in the aforementioned letter. For example:

⃰ A template AI policy and AI policy manual to present to agency leadership

⃰ A template AI incident response plan for the next generation of security risks

⃰ An AI fact sheet and vendor agreement template to ensure agencies are purchasing responsible AI tools

⃰ A growing repository of guides for AI use cases being tested by other agencies

⃰ A growing vendor registry of AI systems available for government use

“San Jose is the worldwide hub for innovation, and the latest innovations are happening in AI,” said Mayor Matt Mahan, in a statement. “It just makes sense for our city to lead the charge in both the creation of these new technologies and the responsible use of them. I’m excited to welcome new partners to the table as we discuss the future of AI and government.”

Jennifer Maguire, city manager with the City of San Jose, is equally excited about the collective’s potential to help increase and improve AI’s role in the government workplace.

“This coalition is a wonderful opportunity for our City to work with other government agencies on AI best practices,” Maguire said, in a statement. “I look forward to seeing how this coalition of like-minded partners will foster the current and future AI environment for our workforce.”