City considers measure to study best use of AI

Indianapolis’ City-County Council is looking at a proposal to solve some of the city’s technology needs with emerging artificial intelligence, or AI.

The new measure aims to improve municipal efficiency through AI. City-County Councilor Michael-Paul Hart said he wants Indianapolis to be a leader in high-end technology like robotic process automation that takes over repetitive tasks usually done by people.

“To clean a lot of those things up and prioritize what's more important within that database,” Hart said. “You know, those are things that we can help our Business Neighborhood Services, get out and give those city services the attention that they need. Getting permits through it can help identify where those bottlenecks are.”

AI options may include improvements to the Mayor’s Action Center, city security cameras or traffic studies. 

The proposal would create a commission to study the issue and take policy action items back to the council. 

Hart said the group would highlight the best ways to maximize AI’s potential and address concerns.

“To come back at the end of the day and be able to present something back to the mayor's office and back to the council to say, look, here's some findings and how we can improve our city and do more with what we have today,” Hart said.

A Rules and Public Policy committee will discuss the measure later this month.

Contact WFYI city government and policy reporter Jill Sheridan at jsheridan@wfyi.org.