What We’re Reading: U.S. Digital Response’s Blueprint for Staying Informed on Government and Generative AI

In an era defined by the relentless pace of technological advancement and the intricate workings of government, staying informed is not just a preference; it’s a necessity.

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A commitment to diverse and reputable sources is at the heart of USDR’s reading strategy. While we’re regularly turning to primary sources such as official government publications, legislative updates, and policy briefings — we also love an in-depth breakdown from one of our favorite journalists, introspective thoughts and case studies from our ecosystem friends, and the occasional spicy take.

Today, our virtual bookshelf is full of a growing list of government and generative AI (gen AI) articles, executive orders, and guidelines. To help keep our community informed, we wanted to share what we’re reading. Reposted articles here are not an endorsement, we’re just reading everything we can.

Take a look, pull an article off the shelf, and get cozy. We’ll be updating this list as more articles come in. Well, maybe not that fast — there seems to be something written on the subject every day. But, frequently enough to give you enough time to take a break, refill your mug of tea/coffee/whatever, and settle back in.

5/24/24

✏️ Blogs [Medium, IF]

In 12 months you will be an AI organisation, like it or not
IF explores two key shifts in Generative AI that will redefine industries.

Mapping the Mind of a Large Language Model
Anthropic offers a detailed look inside a modern, production-grade large language model.

🗞️ Articles

Press pause on the Silicon Valley hype machine [New York Times]
Julia Angwin says “the question isn’t really whether A.I. is too smart and will take over the world. It’s whether A.I. is too stupid and unreliable to be useful.”

Our government shouldn’t use the public sector as a guinea pig for AI [The Hill]
Aiha Nguyen, program director at Data & Society, cautions against premature experimentation with AI in government.

“AI has the potential to dramatically improve many government processes and could help the cities provide better services. But if technologies are poorly designed, without attention to how they are integrated into society, they could change power relations and how people relate to their governments.” — Aiha Nguyen

Georgia, Maryland, & Vermont AI programs and initiatives [GovChats]
Recording of GOVChats hosted by GTA’s Digital Services Georgia, where speakers dive into the artificial intelligence (AI) programs and initiatives unfolding across the states of Georgia, Maryland, and Vermont.

🏙️Advocacy/Ecosystem Organizations and Research

DESIGN ☢ AG(AI)NST  AI [John Maeda]
The 2024 Design and Tech Report, “Design Against AI,” covers the evolving dynamics between AI and design are explored, highlighting the uncertainty of whether to compete with, protest against, or collaborate with AI.

Design Against AI: 2024 Design in Tech Report RAPID VERSION

2/28/24

✏️ Blogs

How government adoption of GenAI is different [Medium]
Joy Bonaguro shares her thoughts on how governments will pick different paths on their genAI journey.

Ai for social good [Civilla]
Boston was one of the first cities to embrace generative AI. From summarizing hundred-page handbooks to translating public information into different languages, Boston’s Boston’s Chief Information Officer, Santiago “Santi” Garces saw the possibilities and wanted to give city staff a way to test the tools out for themselves.

“In government, we spend so much time writing and consuming dense information. When I started to play around with generative AI, I knew it could be a game-changer. I thought, why not put a structure in place for others across the city to experiment responsibly and see where this could take us?” — Boston’s Chief Information Officer, Santiago “Santi” Garces

🗞️ Articles

States clash over what responsible AI looks like [Route50]
While some states are still establishing task forces and preparing to take advantage of the tech, others are more hesitant, warning of job losses and federal influence on a nascent industry.

Google.org, USDR to aid state, local governments on generative AI [StateScoop]
The civic tech nonprofit U.S. Digital Response announced a new initiative to help state and local governments use generative AI.

🎧 Podcasts

2024 Elections: Is AI going to wreak havoc? [Computer Says Maybe]
This podcast episode walks through how misinformation and disinformation has been used in past elections to impact outcomes, where we think AI might make a material difference in how elections play out this year, and where we think responsibility lies for the situation we’re in.

2/21/24

🏙️Advocacy/Ecosystem Organizations and Research

State of Cities: Generative AI in Local Governments [Bloomberg Philanthropies]
Gen AI promises to revolutionize the way cities work and, with strategic implementation, has the potential to vastly improve local governments’ efficiency, its capacity to innovate, and, most importantly, its efforts to improve residents’ lives. Getting there, however, necessitates a better understanding of how this new technology is already being put to work, where it presents the best opportunities, and what pitfalls could get in the way of progress. This research, which included a two-survey process including 100 Mayors and city staff from around the world, addresses these questions and key trends in today’s evolving Gen AI landscape.

12/20/23

✏️ Blogs

How Iceland is using GPT-4 to preserve its language [OpenAI Blog]
While most of Iceland’s roughly 370,000 citizens speak English or another second language, its integration with the United States and Europe has put the country’s native tongue, Icelandic, at risk. On the initiative of the country’s President, HE Guðni Th. Jóhannesson, and with the help of private industry, Iceland has partnered with OpenAI to use GPT-4 in the preservation effort of the Icelandic language — and to turn a defensive position into an opportunity to innovate.

Our vision for an intelligent human services and benefits access system [Benefits Data Trust]
Stephen Rockwell, chief digital officer at Benefits Data Trust, shares their vision for a world where the human services system proactively identifies people in need, anticipates the types of support that can help resolve their problems, and automatically enrolls those who are eligible to receive benefits and services.

NY Times missed these 12 trailblazers: meet the women transforming AI [Séphora Bemba — Women in Tech]
Ignoring tech women leaders without addressing it will just keep sending the wrong message that women’s contributions are less important in the field, which is far from true.

🏙️ Advocacy/Ecosystem Organizations and Research

Response letter to OMB’s ‘advancing governance, innovation, and risk management for agency use of artificial intelligence’ draft memorandum [Beeck Center for Social Impact + Innovation]
To improve the guidance for federal agencies’ governance of AI with a focus on improving the digital delivery of government programs, the Beeck Center for Social Impact + Innovation at Georgetown University compiled 10 recommendations for OMB’s consideration in response to their request for comment via regulations.gov.

Five guiding principles for how government should implement AI [Code for America]
Amanda Renteria, CEO of Code for America, shares why Code for America recommends that governments at every level follow five guiding principles in doing this work.

“Human-centered government meets people’s needs while treating them with dignity and respect. Decision-makers should direct resources to the services that can help the most people and then build digital tools that leverage AI to meet that need.” — Amanda Renteria

🗞️ Articles

Experts warn that OMB’s AI guidance could slow federal adoption of the emerging tech [NextGov]
Commentators say proposed definitions of “rights-impacting” and “safety-impacting” use cases could wind up saddling low-impact AI programs up with high-impact controls.

Meta AI unveils ‘Seamless’ translator for real-time communication across languages [Venture Beat]
Meta AI researchers announced that they have developed a new suite of artificial intelligence models called Seamless Communication that aim to enable more natural and authentic communication across languages — essentially making the concept of a Universal Speech Translator a reality.

📚 Books

Deep learning — foundations and concepts
This book offers a comprehensive introduction to the central ideas that underpin deep learning. It is intended both for newcomers to machine learning and for those already experienced in the field.

12/5/23

✏️ Blogs

Charting the Course: The Intersection of Gen AI and Government [USDR]
USDR’s own Tina Walha explores what this new era of technology means for government. The first in a three-part blog series, USDR takes a look at the current landscape and the journey ahead.

A library of AI reading for government [Carrie Bishop]
A great list from Carrie Bishop — sharing her own government AI reading list. Including some state and local government AI policies and AI primers. Get up to speed on what’s going on with AI in government.

What might LLMs/generative AI mean for public benefits and the safety net/tech? [Dave Guarino]
Dave Guarino shares his thoughts on large-language models, public benefits, and the safety net.

Asked and Answered: What is preventing local governments from using GenAI? [Medium — MetroLabs Network]
MetroLabs Network recently asked local governments the question: What is preventing me from using a GenAI use case? Here’s what they heard and how the Executive Order addresses these concerns.

“There was also concern with respect to accuracy. “Hallucinations” or false outputs from genAI can create outright wrong outcomes or answers. The responsibility to provide accurate information as a government agency is a serious one, and a level of confidence in accurate outcomes when using this technology.” — MetroLabs

🏙️ Advocacy/Ecosystem Organizations and Research

Generative AI: Perspectives from Stanford HAI [Stanford HAI]
Members from the Stanford community tackle the question “How do you think generative AI will affect your field and society going forward?”

Governing artificial intelligence in the public interest [Stanford Cyber Policy Center]
An argument that the US should adopt a new approach for developing and shaping AI capabilities by integrating the technologies in policies specifically geared towards a sustainable, equitable and green digital economy.

The ethics and governance of generative AI [NCL]
As Artificial Intelligence, particularly generative AI, becomes increasingly integrated into our daily lives, the need for responsible and transparent guidelines becomes paramount.

“Generative AI is a tool. We are responsible for the outcomes of our tools. For example, if autocorrect unintentionally changes a word — changing the meaning of something we wrote, we are still responsible for the text. Technology enables our work, it does not excuse our judgment nor our accountability.” — Santiago Garces, CIO, Boston

🗞️ Articles

The people problem behind the government’s AI ambitions [NextGov]
As agencies move to fulfill requirements laid out in Biden’s AI executive order, workforce gaps remain “one of the biggest barriers” according to a White House official.

Boston experimented with using generative AI for governing. It went surprisingly well [Fast Company]
New AI tools offer the most hope ever for creating a broadly reformed, citizen-oriented governance.

These women tried to warn us about AI [Rolling Stone]
Today the risks of artificial intelligence are clear — but the warning signs have been there all along.

🎧 Podcasts

How to responsibly navigate government’s AI frontier with Luis Videgaray [Data Smart City Solutions]
In this episode, host Professor Stephen Goldsmith interviews Luis Videgaray, director of MIT AI Policy for the World Project, senior lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management, and former Foreign Minister and Finance Minister of Mexico. They explore the dynamic landscape of AI adoption in cities, from basic applications to transformative processes, why generative tools demand leadership attention, and the best approach to AI procurement.

📺 Videos

Amy Webb launches 2023 Emerging Tech Trend Report | SXSW 2023 [AI Future Today Institute]
In this provocative session, futurist Amy Webb, CEO of the Future Today Institute and professor at NYU Stern School of Business, will provide a data-driven analysis for the emerging tech trends that need to be on your radar this year — and she’ll show you scenarios that will change your perspective on the futures.

Government policies/mandates/guidelines

Federal

State

Local