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Deadline to Submit Expression of Interest Form: April 4, 2025
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Starts: May 2025. Specific meeting dates and times will be determined in coordination with participating cities.
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Ends: August 2025. Specific meeting dates and times will be determined in coordination with participating cities.
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Frequency: Group Sprint sessions will be held virtually once a week between May and August of 2025. Cities will also attend 1:1 TA sessions.
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Duration: 16 weeks plus one pre-sprint call and one post-sprint call. Each week, cities can expect to spend 2-hours in Session and 1-2 hours of outside of session time advancing their Engagement & Training plans.
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Language: This Sprint will be offered in English with simultanious translation to Spanish.
Context
The stakes are high for cities when it comes to how they leverage artificial intelligence (AI). While surveys indicate that a large majority of cities are exploring, testing or implementing the use of AI, public trust in these technologies is declining--both in the U.S. and around the world. With federal institutions in flux, disinformation campaigns accelerating, and AI tools being deployed faster than most communities can understand them, local governments must step into a new role: as stewards of responsible use of technology in government.
Without responsible governance of AI, the risk is clear: AI systems designed to increase efficiency may instead lead to poor outcomes for residents—particularly in high-stakes domains like housing, law enforcement, social services, and education. In this moment, cities should adopt new technologies in ways that ensure positive outcomes and the safety of residents, demonstrate the value of public servants, and advance democratic innovation.
One emerging and vital component of responsible AI governance is auditing of AI systems, to ensure that the performance of technologies meet the standards and core principles defined by each city to ensure positive resident outcomes. As AI vendors increasingly approach cities with new tools, cities need clear procurement guidelines and effective ways to evaluate these tools against their own standards. This Sprint will help cities develop AI Audit Plans and evaluation tools that cities can own, scale, and lead with.
Sprint Overview
This advanced Sprint -- “Developing AI Audit Plans” -- will support an inaugural cohort of five cities in developing customized AI Audit Plans to evaluate the impact of specific AI tools. This sprint will help cities design and document a repeatable process for auditing AI tools that aligns with their values around responsible AI governance.
Participating cities will receive expert-led training, peer learning, and 1:1 coaching to help map their AI governance principles to technical evaluation metrics and produce an audit plan for a selected AI tool. Cities will walk away with an actionable roadmap to implement audits with internal teams and/or external vendors---ensuring their AI use is transparent, equitable, and accountable.
This Sprint supports cities in achieving the PA4.3 Certification Criteria, and also contributes toward broader efforts around trust-building and equitable implementation of AI tools in local government.
What will I do in this Sprint?
Over the course of a 16-week structured program (May-August 2025), city teams will participate in a mix of:
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Masterclasses on topics such as translating AI principles into metrics, developing evaluation methodologies, and designing audit processes;
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Hands-on coaching sessions tailored to individual city participants;
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Guided assignments to advance the development of City AI audit plans;
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Alumni cohort session in December 2025 to reflect on progress and implementation.
Deliverables will include a documented AI Audit Plan that outlines:
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Evaluation metrics mapped to city’s responsible AI governance principles;
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Data collection methods (quantitative and qualitative);
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Stakeholder roles and partnerships.
Who should apply to participate in this Sprint?
This Sprint is ideal for cities that meet all the criteria below:
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Are interested in responsible governance of AI;
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Have developed or are in the process of developing AI governance principles/standards/frameworks;
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Are being regularly approached by AI vendors
We encourage Expressions of Interest from cities in North America and Latin America.
We encourage cities that apply as a cross-departmental team consisting of staff members of a city government agency/department that has the ability to evaluate and deploy specific AI tools in addition to staff members that are part of a city’s technology and innovation functions.
Submission of Expression of Interest is not a guarantee of admission. Space is limited.
This course will put you on the path to achieving the following WWC Criteria:
PA4.3: Your local government has documented policies or practices to attempt to reduce the impact of demographic or geographic bias, both in its own decision making and as the result of the reuse of open and shared data by third parties.