How cities are making data-driven decisions in the age of AI

For almost a decade, What Works Cities has helped cities understand how to use the data they collect to improve outcomes. The advent of AI has accelerated much of that mission.

Cities have excelled at collecting data, but the recent growth of artificial intelligence has brought into focus the need for that data to be clean, standardized and ready to use.

Unclean data could lead to all kinds of negative consequences from AI tools, like incorrect outputs, hallucinations and bias, and those concerns have city leaders thinking hard about what to do next.

Thankfully, help is at hand. For almost a decade, Bloomberg Philanthropies has backed What Works Cities, a certification that recognizes local governments for their use of data to inform policy decisions and funding priorities while improving services.

By Chris Teale