On Oct. 21, the Albuquerque City Council voted on a resolution to establish a working group designed to develop an artificial intelligence policy for the City of Albuquerque.
Resolution R-24-81 allocates $50,000 to supporting the creation of an Artificial Intelligence Policy Working Group, which will go toward addressing an AI policy for the City.
This includes creating a “prioritization matrix” — identifying potential uses and misuses of AI, according to the resolution. The group will also be charged with creating clear and universally understood definitions of “key terms related to AI development and implementation.”
Additionally, the task force will inventory current AI usage by City departments and analyze the risks and costs of that usage.
The legislation was co-sponsored by District 7 City Councilor Tammy Fiebelkorn of Albuquerque and District 8 City Councilor Dan Champine.
According to the resolution, the task force will be staffed by the Department of Technology and Innovation and will include additional staff from other City departments and community entities.
“We’re not really sure what the future holds with this really dramatic change in technology,” Fiebelkorn said. “I realized that a lot of other cities, counties and states are developing AI use guidelines, but the City of Albuquerque has not done so.”
Fiebelkorn said the makeup of the task force and the choosing of its members was guided by what she saw on other task forces, as well as a look at which communities would be most impacted and how to ensure their voices were heard.
“This is not just a ‘Hey, let’s have the three smartest computer people get in a room and decide,’” Fiebelkorn said. “This is really a community conversation about what’s an appropriate use for the City of Albuquerque for AI.”
Fiebelkorn said she hopes that the task force will not only protect New Mexicans from the bad uses of AI, but also allow them to benefit from the good.
She stressed concerns with deepfake usage in elections and politics.
“It's kind of like 20 years ago, when we started going online for everything. This is the next step. I think we have to acknowledge all of the problems that could exist and set up guardrails,” Fiebelkorn said. “I think we can do that.”
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Addison Fulton is the culture editor for the Daily Lobo. She can be reached at culture@dailylobo.com or on X @dailylobo
