REPORT TO COUNCIL
SUBJECT
Title
Authorize the Mayor to Sign the Final Version of the Responsible AI Pledge at the upcoming GovAI Coalition Summit
Report
COUNCIL PILLAR
Deliver and Enhance High Quality Efficient Services and Infrastructure.
BACKGROUND
The GovAI Coalition (https://www.sanjoseca.gov/govai) was established in November 2023 to give local government a voice in shaping the future of AI and to ensure that AI development aims to benefit society. The GovAI Coalition is composed of over 1,500 members and over 500 local, state, and federal agencies united in our mission to promote responsible and purposeful AI in the public sector. The City of San Jose is the lead city working with partners to advance nationwide municipal government objectives with respect to AI. The Coalition intends to produce, and has produced, deliverables in a number of areas that make it easier for public agencies to stay aligned with government best practices, receive support from other members, and procure new AI systems with greater transparency from vendors.
The GovAI Coalition is committed to:
• Using AI for social good,
• Ensuring ethical, non-discriminatory, and responsible AI governance,
• Promoting vendor accountability,
• Improving government services, and
• Fostering cross-agency collaboration and knowledge sharing.
To achieve these goals, the GovAI Coalition has adopted the following “Guiding Principles for Responsible AI Systems” as a part of its Artificial Intelligence Policy:
1. Human-Centered Design: AI systems are developed and deployed with a human-centered approach that evaluates AI powered services for their impact on the public;
2. Security & Safety: AI systems maintain confidentiality, integrity, and availability through safeguards that prevent unauthorized access and use. Implementation of AI systems is reliable and safe, and minimizes risks to individuals, society, and the environment;
3. Privacy: Privacy is preserved in all AI systems by safeguarding personally identifiable information (PII) and sensitive data from unauthorized access, disclosure, and manipulation;
4. Transparency: The purpose and use of AI systems is proactively communicated and disclosed to the public. An AI system, its data sources, operational model, and policies that govern its use are understandable and documented;
5. Equity: AI systems support equitable outcomes for everyone. Bias in AI systems is effectively managed with the intention of reducing harm for anyone impacted by its use;
6. Accountability: Roles and responsibilities govern the deployment and maintenance of AI systems, and human oversight ensures adherence to relevant laws and regulations;
7. Effectiveness: AI systems are reliable, meet their objectives, and deliver precise and dependable outcomes for the utility and contexts in which they are deployed; and
8. Workforce Empowerment: Staff are empowered to use AI in their roles through education, training, and collaborations that promote participation and opportunity.
In January 2024, the City Manager established a citywide AI Employee Engagement Group to research, analyze, and evaluate how generative AI tools impact our work and to develop a City Manager Directive on how we use AI internally. This group consists of individuals from various City departments and has thus far developed a draft AI policy. The engagement group conducted a staff survey to learn more about the existing use of AI in the City, participated with the vendor community including NVIDIA to learn more about AI, attended academic courses, and explored use cases that further citizen engagement and improve City services. In September, the group presented its findings and recommendations to the senior leadership team along with a draft AI policy.
The City’s draft AI policy aims to encourage responsible use of AI in the workplace. Key elements of the City’s AI policy include safeguards on sensitive data and acceptable use of generative AI tools. The policy includes guiding principles such as transparency, equity, accountability, privacy, security, accuracy and responsible use. Prohibited uses include inputting sensitive data into generative AI tools and relying on fully automated decision making. In addition, user training is also planned and a chatbot on the city’s website is envisioned.
In March 2024, the City’s AI Engagement Group discussed joining the GovAI Coalition and recommended approval of signing an open letter published by the GovAI Coalition in March of 2024. As a member organization, staff has participated in GovAI meetings. We have taken advantage of resources available via the GovAI coalition and used draft templates as reference to the development of the City’s draft AI policy and guiding principles. The GovAI Coalition is performing valuable work that will benefit all municipalities and set the stage for future development of AI systems for municipal use and guide the use of AI systems in municipal environments. It is important for our City to be a member so our voice can be heard in the decision making process.
DISCUSSION
The GovAI Coalition will be hosting a Summit at the San Jose McEnery Convention Center on December 4-6, 2024. The Summit will culminate in the signing of the Responsible AI Pledge on December 5, 2024. Mayor Lisa Gillmor has been invited by the Office of the Mayor Matt Mahan of the City of San Jose to sign the Responsible AI Pledge.
The Responsible AI Pledge furthers the coalition’s goal to communicate with the vendor community and coalition members as to the coalition’s intent to promote responsible use of AI. The pledge seeks to promote:
• Ethical, non-discriminatory, and responsible AI governance,
• Hold vendors accountable to standards set forth by the Coalition,
• Improve government services, and
• Foster collaboration and knowledge sharing among various participating organizations.
The pledge, in its current form, lists the coalition’s responsible AI principles. In addition, the pledge implores its signatories to uphold the responsible AI principles and advocate for them, provide resources to participate in ongoing development of GovAI’s activities, adopt an AI policy and incident response plan, implement procurement standards, educate, and train workforce and educate constituents regarding the benefits and risks presented by AI.
City staff, and other coalition members, provided feedback to the City of San Jose on the draft version of the pledge language; concerns regarding potential budget actions necessary to “provide resources” or procurement decisions that did not align with existing city codes were raised with the Coalition. City of San Jose staff has incorporated our feedback into the Pledge language, to make it a commitment of action rather than one of adoption. A copy of the updated pledge document is attached to this report.
ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW
The action being considered does not constitute a “project” within the meaning of the California Environmental Quality Act (“CEQA”) pursuant to CEQA Guidelines section 15378(a) as it has no potential for resulting in either a direct physical change in the environment, or a reasonably foreseeable indirect physical change in the environment.
FISCAL IMPACT
There is no fiscal impact associated with the Pledge itself, apart from staff time.
PUBLIC CONTACT
Public contact was made by posting the Council agenda on the City’s official-notice bulletin board outside City Hall Council Chambers. A complete agenda packet is available on the City’s website and in the City Clerk’s Office at least 72 hours prior to a Regular Meeting and 24 hours prior to a Special Meeting. A hard copy of any agenda report may be requested by contacting the City Clerk’s Office at (408) 615-2220, email clerk@santaclaraca.gov <mailto:clerk@santaclaraca.gov> or at the public information desk at any City of Santa Clara public library.
RECOMMENDATION
Recommendation
Authorize the Mayor to sign the final version of the Responsible Artificial Intelligence (AI) Pledge proposed by the GovAI Coalition Summit being held December 4 - 6.
Staff
Reviewed by: Gaurav Garg, Director/CIO, Information Technology Department
Approved by: Jovan D. Grogan, City Manager
ATTACHMENTS
1. UPDATED GovAI Coalition Responsible AI Pledge