City Council defers decision on bill that would create a working group on AI policy

The Albuquerque City Council on Monday deferred a bill that would form a working group to come up with policies on artificial intelligence.

The group’s goal would be to establish ethical guidelines for how the city will implement AI into its work, according to the bill.

The group would include staff from the city’s IT department, City Council Services, the Mayor’s Office, City Clerk’s Office, the Albuquerque Police Department’s Real Time Crime Center, the General Services Department’s Energy and Sustainability Management Division, Human Resources, the Office of Equity and Inclusion, the Legal Department and the Albuquerque Geographical Information Systems Division of the Planning Department.

The group would also include some non-government stakeholders. Listed in the bill are the city of Albuquerque’s Information Services Commission, Albuquerque Police Officers’ Association, American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 18, civil rights advocates, community members, the International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF) Local 24, software vendors, representatives from the University of New Mexico Department of Computer Sciences and “other local universities and colleges doing research in software sciences and computer sciences, including students, staff, and researchers.”

The bill initially asked for $40,000 from the general fund to be allocated to the working group. An amendment that passed 8-1 asked for $50,000.

Councilors Tammy Fiebelkorn and Dan Champine sponsored the bill.

“We recognize that AI is ever evolving so quickly; it probably has grown 17 years since we started this meeting,” Champine said.

His cosponsor also spoke before the 8-1 vote to table the bill until the next meeting.

“There are a lot of types of AI. Some can be used for good, some can be used for bad, and we want to make sure that we get the experts in the room together to have that conversation,” Fiebelkorn said. “There are certain types of machine learning that could be really useful for the city of Albuquerque.”

Councilor Brook Bassan voted against the amendment as well as revisiting the bill.

A pair of public speakers came to speak on the dangers of AI, including Anami Dass. She said she asked AI to generate an email to a city employee, then asked it if she should disclose that she used AI. She said the AI told her it was not necessary.

“AI just told me to not to tell you that I was using AI,” Dass said. “And that should terrify all of you.”