In a bid to encourage more users to adopt AI tools for improving public services, San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan is leading a new initiative. The mayor intends to integrate artificial intelligence, specifically OpenAI’s ChatGPT, into the daily operations of the city’s workforce. With AI, the Mayor believes this will significantly reduce ‘drudge work’ and enable the city administration to serve its 1 million residents better.
Sources say that the city administration has already invested over $35,000 to acquire 89 ChatGPT licenses, with plans to train approximately 1,000 city workers, which is roughly 15 per cent of its workforce. These trained employees will utilise AI for a variety of tasks – drafting speeches, creating budget documents, attending operational duties like responding to complaints, optimising bus routes, and even assisting in criminal cases, utilising the city’s vehicle-tracking surveillance cameras.
Mayor uses ChatGPT to prepare budget documents
The Mayor reportedly leads by example, too. He openly admitted to using ChatGPT to draft speeches and prepare budget documents. He highlights transparency in the adoption process, acknowledging that new technologies often come with initial challenges. “The idea is to try things, be really transparent, look for problems, flag them, share them across different government agencies, and then work with vendors and internal teams to problem solve,” Mahan stated.
One of the early success stories comes from Andrea Arjona Amador, who leads electric mobility programs at San Jose’s transportation department. She successfully secured a $12 million grant for electric vehicle chargers with the help of ChatGPT. This assisted in organising incoming information and drafting the 20-page grant document. Arjona Amador noted that adopting ChatGPT significantly reduced the time previously spent on grant applications.
San Jose exercises caution with AI
While San Jose has reported no major mishaps with its pilot projects, the broader adoption of AI in government has seen some challenges. Instances of AI “hallucinations” or fabricated information have occurred elsewhere, leading to job resignations in some cases. However, Mayor Mahan remains confident, stressing the importance of human oversight. “You still need a human being in the loop. You can’t just kind of press a couple of buttons and trust the output. You still have to do some independent verification,” he advised.
San Jose’s AI-adoption initiative aligns with the growing trend in the Bay Area – widespread adoption of AI by other city Mayors, who are collaborating with tech giants like OpenAI and Google. San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie recently announced a similar plan to provide nearly 30,000 city workers with access to Microsoft‘s Copilot chatbot.
