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Pre-course calls: Will be held on August 5th and 12th 2024.
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Starts: September 2024. Specific meeting dates and times will be determined in coordination with participating cities.
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Ends: November 2024. 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 September and November of 2024. Cities will also attend 1:1 TA sessions.
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Duration: 10 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 pilot Sprint will be offered in English only, with future iterations of the Sprint offered in Spanish and Portuguese.
Context
The stakes are high for cities when it comes to how they leverage artificial intelligence (AI). 71% of cities are exploring, testing or implementing the use of generative AI, meanwhile trust in AI technology is dropping, in both the U.S. and around the world. The potential benefits of integrating AI technologies in city operations will be limited unless city leaders find a way to build community trust around the use of City AI that considers both operational efficiencies and human values and rights. How cities integrate AI into municipal systems in ways that build public trust will depend on how effective they are at educating and engaging communities on these issues—particularly around the use of automated systems impacting hot-button social and economic equity issues including law enforcement, justice systems, housing, and social services. As stated by What Works Cities Managing Director Rochelle Haynes in an open letter about how cities can harness the power of AI, “robust community engagement will help gain buy-in and fuel long-term success that doesn’t lift up a few communities while leaving others behind.”
Sprint Overview
This WWC Sprint, “Building Community Trust in City AI”, will provide up to 6 participating cities that are exploring, testing, and/or implementing the use of AI in city systems with the tools to develop engagement programs and initiatives that build public trust in their AI efforts. This Sprint will support cities in achieving the SI1 – Community Data Training and Collaboration criteria. Each participating city will design a tailored community engagement program related to a specific AI effort, whether creating their first citywide AI governance framework or deploying a specific AI use case—for example leveraging generative AI in education, housing, or city services like small-business support, among others. Cities will have a chance to incorporate approaches to engaging vulnerable populations to root out biases from AI systems and develop standards and accountability measures. This pilot City AI Sprint will be conducted in English, with the intention that future iterations of the Sprint will also be offered in Spanish and Portuguese.
What will I do in this Sprint?
Over an intensive 10-week sprint, in a collaborative peer environment, participating cities will refine training and engagement concepts and design programs that invite constituents to engage with select topics related to each city's current/planned AI efforts. This includes working to identify key audiences, intergovernmental partners, and external partners including civic institutions and community-based organizations to partner with on training and engagement programs. Through a combination of masterclasses, hands-on workshops, and one-on-one technical assistance sessions, participating cities will produce a City AI Engagement Plan that serves as a roadmap to implement a community engagement/training program focused on a specific AI topic, initiative or service. Cities should expect to spend 3-4 hours a week on this Sprint, including Sprint sessions, TA sessions, and assignments.
The “co-designing” atmosphere is an important feature of the sprint. The sprint will provide a venue for collaboration, mutual accountability, and awareness of strategies in other cities, which can help to accelerate efforts across all participating cities. This inaugural cohort of the “Building Community Trust in City AI” sprint will have an opportunity to make a meaningful contribution to the development of best practices that can help cities around the world equitably advance their City AI goals. After the conclusion of the Sprint sessions, HR&A will collaborate with participant cities to develop a publishable resource presenting their Engagement Plan as a best practice. This best practice resource will support participant cities in elevating their voices as thought leaders in developing community engagement processes to guide AI use.
Participants will have:
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A toolkit of community engagement/training best practices relating to City AI, including engagement/training templates that can be adapted to specific needs and use cases.
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An implementable City AI Engagement Plan for conducting a City AI community engagement/training program based on their selected topic area; this will include identifying target audience, partner agencies, and community organizations.
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Planning templates useful for planning engagement/training programs around other City AI topic areas/audiences.
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A publishable resource presenting their Engagement Plan as a best practice.
Who should apply to participate in this Sprint?
Eligible participant cities will be those that are currently in one of the following stages of AI use:
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Designating internal staff to focus on AI deployments;
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Creating and/or revising internal AI governance frameworks;
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Developing and/or designing specific AI use cases;
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Deploying and/or preparing to deploy AI for specific use cases.
Interested cities should complete the short Expression of Interest form within the Register Now button by Friday, July 26 to apply to participate in this Sprint pilot. Please note that 6 cities will be selected to participate in this Fall City AI Sprint. Cities that are not yet eligible may apply to participate in a future offering of this City AI Sprint. Completion of the Expression of Interest form is not a guarantee of admission.
This Sprint will be offered in English only.
This course will put you on the path to achieving the following WWC Criteria:
SI1: Community Data Training and Collaboration.
Your local government supports efforts to educate, upskill, and activate community members (both individuals and local organizations e.g., civic groups, place-based partners, vendors, service providers) to better understand and use city data and analytics services to deepen community impact.
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