A picture of Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell reviewing the city’s new AI policy. Caw caw. (Image: CHS AI Bot)
” data-medium-file=”https://i0.wp.com/www.capitolhillseattle.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/ja_photorealistic_crow_writing_a_policy_paper_at_S_c9bd02a4-f742-43be-9d91-00b0917c47a5.png?fit=400%2C400&ssl=1″ data-large-file=”https://i0.wp.com/www.capitolhillseattle.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/ja_photorealistic_crow_writing_a_policy_paper_at_S_c9bd02a4-f742-43be-9d91-00b0917c47a5.png?fit=584%2C584&ssl=1″ decoding=”async” class=”wp-image-2067282816 size-medium” src=”https://i0.wp.com/www.capitolhillseattle.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/ja_photorealistic_crow_writing_a_policy_paper_at_S_c9bd02a4-f742-43be-9d91-00b0917c47a5.png?resize=400%2C400&ssl=1″ alt width=”400″ height=”400″ srcset=”https://i0.wp.com/www.capitolhillseattle.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/ja_photorealistic_crow_writing_a_policy_paper_at_S_c9bd02a4-f742-43be-9d91-00b0917c47a5.png?resize=400%2C400&ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/www.capitolhillseattle.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/ja_photorealistic_crow_writing_a_policy_paper_at_S_c9bd02a4-f742-43be-9d91-00b0917c47a5.png?resize=600%2C600&ssl=1 600w, https://i0.wp.com/www.capitolhillseattle.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/ja_photorealistic_crow_writing_a_policy_paper_at_S_c9bd02a4-f742-43be-9d91-00b0917c47a5.png?resize=200%2C200&ssl=1 200w, https://i0.wp.com/www.capitolhillseattle.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/ja_photorealistic_crow_writing_a_policy_paper_at_S_c9bd02a4-f742-43be-9d91-00b0917c47a5.png?resize=768%2C768&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.capitolhillseattle.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/ja_photorealistic_crow_writing_a_policy_paper_at_S_c9bd02a4-f742-43be-9d91-00b0917c47a5.png?resize=144%2C144&ssl=1 144w, https://i0.wp.com/www.capitolhillseattle.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/ja_photorealistic_crow_writing_a_policy_paper_at_S_c9bd02a4-f742-43be-9d91-00b0917c47a5.png?resize=300%2C300&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/www.capitolhillseattle.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/ja_photorealistic_crow_writing_a_policy_paper_at_S_c9bd02a4-f742-43be-9d91-00b0917c47a5.png?w=1024&ssl=1 1024w” sizes=”(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px” data-recalc-dims=”1″>
A picture of Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell reviewing the city’s new AI policy. Caw caw. (Image: CHS AI Bot)
Seattle has released details of its new Generative Artificial Intelligence policy.
Don’t worry, red states. The liberal blue state bastion isn’t about to roll out an army of progressive AI robots. Yet.
Instead, the new policy sets mostly common sense guidelines for how city employees can use new AI technology that generate everything from text to photog-quality graphics. The city says the policy should give its workers “greater flexibility as technology evolves while ensuring it aligns with the city’s responsibility to serve residents.”
Officials say the new AI policy touches “on many aspects of generative AI.”
“It highlights several key factors to responsible use in a municipality, including attributing AI-generated work, having an employee review all AI work before going live, and limiting the use of personal information to help build the materials AI uses to develop its product,” a statement on the effort reads. “The policy also stipulates any work with a third-party vendor or tool must also include these principles for AI. This will help novel risks that have the potential to adversely affect the City’s ability to fulfill its legal commitments and obligations about how we use and manage data and information.”
The city says its new policy was developed in a six-month working period with a Generative AI Advisory Team and City Hall employees and was written by Seattle’s Interim Chief Technology Officer Jim Loter. The statement does not address whether Loter used AI to compile the policy. It does include seven “governing principles”
- Innovation and Sustainability
- Transparency and Accountability
- Validity and Reliability
- Bias and Harm Reduction and Fairness
- Privacy Enhancing
- Explainability and Interpretability
- Security and Resiliency
Seattle’s Generative AI Policy Advisory Team included “technology industry leaders” from the University of Washington, the Allen Institute for AI, and members of the City’s Community Technology Advisory Board (CTAB). Seattle Information Technology employees also provided input.
AI, meanwhile, continues to shape industries and economies with impacts large and small. This article was compiled utilizing a free, publicly available AI system.
BECOME A CHS SUBSCRIBER
Subscribe to CHS to help us pay writers and photographers to cover the neighborhood. Become a subscriber at $1/$5/$10 a month.