A proposal to create a group of experts from city departments that would develop an artificial intelligence policy is on pause after city councilors deferred the bill Monday night.
Councilors Tammy Fiebelkorn and Dan Champine — sponsors of the resolution — said they want the city to have an AI policy after seeing the continuous growth of the technology.
According to Fiebelkorn and Champine, outlining a city policy for AI use will ensure the technology is used correctly.
“We are not saying all AI is bad, we are saying there are a lot of types of AI,” Fiebelkorn said during the meeting. “Some can be used for good, some can be used for bad. We want to make sure that we get the experts in the room together to have that conversation.”
The group would include staff from multiple city departments and would have nine months to develop a policy once the resolution is enacted.
Champine said while discussing the bill with the city’s Department of Technology and Innovation director, some issues were raised that Champine and Fiebelkorn did not think of. One of them being the funding appropriated for the resolution.
“It was pointed out that we might need a little more for some outreach,” Fiebelkorn said. “We did bump it up a tiny bit so that we could be sure that this is handled in the correct manner by a consultant that can do all the parts for us.”
The appropriation would come from the city’s general fund and be used to “support the development and implementation of the policy and identification of best practices with all AI uses.”
After councilors passed an amendment to increase the funding from $40,000 to $50,000, Champine called for the bill to be deferred until the council’s Oct. 21 meeting without specifying why. The council passed the deferral on an 8-1 vote.
YES: Joaquín Baca, Dan Champine, Tammy Fiebelkorn, Renée Grout, Dan Lewis,
Klarissa Peña, Nichole Rogers, Louie Sanchez
NO: Brook Bassan
Read more about the resolution here.