Illustration: Allie Carl/Axios
Google is releasing a playbook on Friday to help mayors across the country adopt city-wide AI strategies, per an announcement shared exclusively with Axios.
Why it matters: Cities are approaching the technology wildly differently and with varying levels of resources, interest and need.
- But the "AI divide" — like the "digital divide" that came before it with internet access — is projected to deepen tech access disparities.
- "Building Your City's AI Strategy," released in partnership with the United States Conference of Mayors, is meant to serve as a framework for mayors and other municipal leaders to assess and implement AI.
What's inside: The guide has chapters on identifying staff to participate in an "AI workshop," conducting surveys on AI usage and needs, and drafting an AI strategy document.
- The survey asks questions like how staff are currently using AI tools and which areas of city services could use AI the most.
- The guide states that AI offers cities "significant advantages" and "can automate certain tasks while freeing up city staff for complex, human-centric work."
What they're saying: "Whatever problem you've been dealing with that you've inherited from your predecessors, that you can't figure out the way to fix, AI is the once in a generation tool that gives you a shot at fixing it," Cris Turner, vice president of government affairs at Google, told Axios.
By the numbers: 96% of 100 mayors across the globe surveyed by Bloomberg Philanthropies in 2023 said they were interested in using generative AI, but only 2% surveyed were actively implementing it and 69% said they were exploring it.
The bottom line: Companies like Google depend on people using their generative AI products for profit. But more users help the models get better, Turner noted.
- For example, Turner pointed to the idea that "trash pickup in Memphis might end up being substantially similar to trash pickup in Dearborn, Michigan. So if you figure that out, you can actually scale an AI solution for picking up trash."
