Brandie Nonnecke, PhD
Tarunima Prabhakar, MPP
Chloe Brown, MPA
Camille Crittenden, PhD
Artificial Intelligence (AI) holds great promise for governments and their citizens, providing decision support to increase efficiency and equity in the delivery of public services and resources, identify emerging opportunities and risks, and enable targeted interventions. While AI holds great potential to improve civic domains, these technologies can exacerbate negative effects when they reinforce social biases and inequalities—whether by design or unintentionally. Far from remaining a “virtual threat,” the consequences of ill-considered algorithms can have deleterious effects in the real world.
CITRIS and the Banatao Institute are pleased to release a research study on the benefits and risks of AI-enabled technologies on social, political, and economic inclusion in the urban context. The white paper provides examples of applications of AI for policing and law enforcement, labor and workforce development, and public services. The report concludes with recommendations to help cities take advantage of the benefits of AI while minimizing potential risks, including identifying tradeoffs in transparency, efficiency, effectiveness, and human agency in decision-making.
Inclusive AI: Technology and Policy for a Diverse Urban Future Symposium
Co-hosted by CITRIS and Microsoft on May 10, 2017, “Inclusive AI: Technology and Policy for a Diverse Urban Future,” brought together leaders from academia, industry, and government to explore the benefits and risks of AI on cultural, social, political, and economic inclusion in the urban context. Fei-Fei Li, Professor and Director of the Stanford AI Lab; Brian Christian, Author of The Most Human Human; and Ryan Calo, Professor and Director of the University of Washington Tech Policy Lab, provided keynote remarks.
The event was recorded and can be viewed at: tiny.cc/inclusiveai
This white paper and public symposium were sponsored by Microsoft and CITRIS and the Banatao Institute.
