Episode Airing April 1, 2024

Here in Washington, DC, many in government and the private sector are focused on the President's recent Executive Order on Artificial Intelligence and OMB's recent inventory of use cases across federal agencies. One can see many of these initiatives by simply going to www.ai.gov. Like many things in our country, what happens at the Federal level has an impact on and influences State and local governments. In a (recent/upcoming) show, we talk with State leaders from the National Association of State CIO's (NASCIO). In today's episode though, we'll talk with local government leaders about what is happening at their level with AI. And that's especially important, when one thinks about it, because citizens have more interactions with their local governments than they do with their State government or with the Federal government. And studies show that citizens have more trust in the what their local governments are doing (a bit over 40%) than they do in the Federal government (hovering at about 20% -- just half). So issues of service to the citizen, security, trust and so on may be strongly affected by whether AI is implemented well in city and county governments. Late last Summer, the Public Technology Institute (PTI) conducted the very first survey on how local IT executives view AI. Today, you'll hear more about that study from the person who conducted it as well as directly from several top local government leaders. Let's meet them now and learn more.