Local opinion: AI is driving innovation and progress in Tucson government

Few subjects have captured more headlines last year than artificial intelligence’s rapid innovation and widespread use. As AI technology has quickly evolved, countless stories have arisen about how it is being leveraged by the business community. Whether it’s the healthcare industry using it to enhance and expedite diagnostics or small businesses employing it to punch above their weight, AI’s integrations across various sectors have offered a promising future outlook for a technology still largely in the infancy of its potential.

Yet, with so much attention on the private sector’s adoption of AI, a story that is not yet being fully told is the trailblazing nature of local governments across the country recognizing the remarkable advances in productivity and efficiency AI offers to improve the public sector for the constituencies we serve.

Here in Tucson, I’m proud to work with my colleagues in leveraging this technology to drive progress — from public safety to workforce development initiatives. AI is not just delivering efficiencies in government and upskilling our workforce but also creating new and innovative roles within the city of Tucson and beyond in the public safety space, such as analytics in our Public Safety Communications (911) Department.

In seeking to further harness this collaboration and encourage exploration among counterparts across the nation, I recently had the privilege to work with leaders from across the country, in partnership with Google and the National League of Cities, to develop practical guidelines for local governments to consider and implement as they integrate AI.

Working alongside my committee co-chair, Savannah Mayor Van Johnson, and dozens of others, we focused on three fundamental goals: demystifying and defining AI to help leaders understand the technology and its implications for local governments, evaluating how those governments can use tools responsibly and ethically, and exploring how some cities have already used it.

Our first priority was to define and demystify the concept of AI and help to outline the opportunities and risks that local officials must be mindful of. The focus of this analysis was to help show that AI is not a monolith, and the umbrella term could include a range of applications from predictive modeling to generative AI being used for things like translation services. These definitions lead to actionable steps in the second section on responsible AI use in the public sector, helping to ensure that public sector uses of AI lead by establishing trust with their communities and emphasizing transparency and accountability.

With these two foundational pieces of the framework in place, the final section we present offered perhaps the most interesting element of our analysis: examples collected from those already leveraging AI. Local governments of all sizes have found ways to pilot programs that wield these transformational technologies for the betterment of their communities — from the analysis of critical information of over 4,600 miles of water infrastructure here in Tucson to improving graduation rates through data-driven insights to identify students in need of further help in New York City. These use cases offer a repository of examples to underscore AI’s utility while providing a firm understanding and strategies to overcome initial barriers to use.

As local leaders continue to investigate the use of technologies like AI and machine learning, I hope this report serves as a foundation for future experimentation. Each city has unique circumstances and parameters to consider, and the true value of AI is its adaptability to support leaders as they take on these challenges. Only by learning from each other can we ensure we build responsible AI integrations that help to improve the lives of the public nationwide.