Governing in the Age of AI: Reimagining Local Government

Curated on Posted on by Stefaan Verhulst

Report by the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change: “…The limits of the existing operating model have been reached. Starved of resources by cuts inflicted by previous governments over the past 15 years, many councils are on the verge of bankruptcy even though local taxes are at their highest level. Residents wait too long for care, too long for planning applications and too long for benefits; many people never receive what they are entitled to. Public satisfaction with local services is sliding.

Today, however, there are new tools – enabled by artificial intelligence – that would allow councils to tackle these challenges. The day-to-day tasks of local government, whether related to the delivery of public services or planning for the local area, can all be performed faster, better and cheaper with the use of AI – a true transformation not unlike the one seen a century ago.

These tools would allow councils to overturn an operating model that is bureaucratic, labour-intensive and unresponsive to need. AI could release staff from repetitive tasks and relieve an overburdened and demotivated workforce. It could help citizens navigate the labyrinth of institutions, webpages and forms with greater ease and convenience. It could support councils to make better long-term decisions to drive economic growth, without which the resource pressure will only continue to build…(More)”.

Smart Cities:Technologies and Policy Options to Enhance Services and Transparency

Curated on Posted on by Stefaan Verhulst

GAO Report: “Cities across the nation are using “smart city” technologies like traffic cameras and gunshot detectors to improve public services. In this technology assessment, we looked at their use in transportation and law enforcement.

Experts and city officials reported multiple benefits. For example, Houston uses cameras and Bluetooth sensors to measure traffic flow and adjust signal timing. Other cities use license plate readers to find stolen vehicles.

But the technologies can be costly and the benefits unclear. The data they collect may be sold, raising privacy and civil liberties concerns. We offer three policy options to address such challenges…(More)”.

Data Commons: The Missing Infrastructure for Public Interest Artificial Intelligence

Curated on Posted on by Stefaan Verhulst

Article by Stefaan Verhulst, Burton Davis and Andrew Schroeder: “Artificial intelligence is celebrated as the defining technology of our time. From ChatGPT to Copilot and beyond, generative AI systems are reshaping how we work, learn, and govern. But behind the headline-grabbing breakthroughs lies a fundamental problem: The data these systems depend on to produce useful results that serve the public interest is increasingly out of reach.

Without access to diverse, high-quality datasets, AI models risk reinforcing bias, deepening inequality, and returning less accurate, more imprecise results. Yet, access to data remains fragmented, siloed, and increasingly enclosed. What was once open—government records, scientific research, public media—is now locked away by proprietary terms, outdated policies, or simple neglect. We are entering a data winter just as AI’s influence over public life is heating up.

This isn’t just a technical glitch. It’s a structural failure. What we urgently need is new infrastructure: data commons.

A data commons is a shared pool of data resources—responsibly governed, managed using participatory approaches, and made available for reuse in the public interest. Done correctly, commons can ensure that communities and other networks have a say in how their data is used, that public interest organizations can access the data they need, and that the benefits of AI can be applied to meet societal challenges.

Commons offer a practical response to the paradox of data scarcity amid abundance. By pooling datasets across organizations—governments, universities, libraries, and more—they match data supply with real-world demand, making it easier to build AI that responds to public needs.

We’re already seeing early signs of what this future might look like. Projects like Common Corpus, MLCommons, and Harvard’s Institutional Data Initiative show how diverse institutions can collaborate to make data both accessible and accountable. These initiatives emphasize open standards, participatory governance, and responsible reuse. They challenge the idea that data must be either locked up or left unprotected, offering a third way rooted in shared value and public purpose.

But the pace of progress isn’t matching the urgency of the moment. While policymakers debate AI regulation, they often ignore the infrastructure that makes public interest applications possible in the first place. Without better access to high-quality, responsibly governed data, AI for the common good will remain more aspiration than reality.

That’s why we’re launching The New Commons Challenge—a call to action for universities, libraries, civil society, and technologists to build data ecosystems that fuel public-interest AI…(More)”.

Code Shift: Using AI to Analyze Zoning Reform in American Cities

Curated on Posted on by Stefaan Verhulst

Report by Arianna Salazar-Miranda & Emily Talen: “Cities are at the forefront of addressing global sustainability challenges, particularly those exacerbated by climate change. Traditional zoning codes, which often segregate land uses, have been linked to increased vehicular dependence, urban sprawl and social disconnection, undermining broader social and environmental sustainability objectives. This study investigates the adoption and impact of form-based codes (FBCs), which aim to promote sustainable, compact and mixed-use urban forms as a solution to these issues. Using natural language processing techniques, we analyzed zoning documents from over 2,000 United States census-designated places to identify linguistic patterns indicative of FBC principles. Our fndings reveal widespread adoption of FBCs across the country, with notable variations within regions. FBCs are associated with higher foor to area ratios, narrower and more consistent street setbacks and smaller plots. We also fnd that places with FBCs have improved walkability, shorter commutes and a higher share of multifamily housing. Our fndings highlight the utility of natural language processing for evaluating zoning codes and underscore the potential benefts of form-based zoning reforms for enhancing urban sustainability…(More)”.

Exploring Human Mobility in Urban Nightlife: Insights from Foursquare Data

Curated on Posted on by Stefaan Verhulst

Article by Ehsan Dorostkar: “In today’s digital age, social media platforms like Foursquare provide a wealth of data that can reveal fascinating insights into human behavior, especially in urban environments. Our recent study, published in Cities, delves into how virtual mobility on Foursquare translates into actual human mobility in Tehran’s nightlife scenes. By analyzing user-generated data, we uncovered patterns that can help urban planners create more vibrant and functional nightlife spaces…

Our study aimed to answer two key questions:

  1. How does virtual mobility on Foursquare influence real-world human mobility in urban nightlife?
  2. What spatial patterns emerge from these movements, and how can they inform urban planning?

To explore these questions, we focused on two bustling nightlife spots in Tehran—Region 1 (Darband Square) and Region 6 (Valiasr crossroads)—where Foursquare data indicated high user activity.

Methodology

We combined data from two sources:

  1. Foursquare API: To track user check-ins and identify popular nightlife venues.
  2. Tehran Municipality API: To contextualize the data within the city’s urban framework.

Using triangulation and interpolation techniques, we mapped the “human mobility triangles” in these areas, calculating the density and spread of user activity…(More)”.

Cities in International Decision-Making

Curated on Posted on by Stefaan Verhulst

Book edited by Agnieszka Szpak et al: “…argues that cities are becoming more active participants in international law-making and challenging the previously dominant nation-state approach of recent history.

Chapters explore key literature and legal regulations surrounding cities, providing the latest information on their international normative activities. This book includes multiple interviews conducted with the official representatives of cities and various international institutions, such as UN-Habitat, the EU Committee of the Regions, and the Congress for Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe. The authors investigate how, despite their strong role in international relations and international law implementation, the importance of cities has still not been adequately reflected in the structures of the Council of Europe, the EU and the UN. Ultimately, the book finds that cities have more impact on policy-making than on decision-making processes…(More)”.

International Guidelines on People Centred Smart Cities

Curated on Posted on by Stefaan Verhulst

UN-Habitat: “…The guidelines aim to support national, regional and local governments, as well as relevant stakeholders, in leveraging digital technology for a better quality of life in cities and human settlements, while mitigating the associated risks to achieve global visions of sustainable urban development, in line with the New Urban Agenda, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and other relevant global agendas.
The aim is to promote a people-centred smart cities approach that is consistent with the purpose and the principles of the Charter of the United Nations, including full respect for international law and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, to ensure that innovation and digital technologies are used to help cities and human settlements in order to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals and the New Urban Agenda.
The guidelines serve as a reference for Member States to implement people-centred smart city approaches in the preparation and implementation of smart city regulations, plans and strategies to promote equitable access to, and life-long education and training of all people in, the opportunities provided by data, digital infrastructure and digital services in cities and human settlements, and to favour transparency and accountability.
The guidelines recognize local and regional governments (LRGs) as pivotal actors in ensuring closing digital divides and localizing the objectives and principles of these guidelines as well as the Global Digital Compact for an open, safe, sustainable and secure digital future. The guidelines are intended to complement existing global principles on digital development through a specific additional focus on the key role of local and regional governments, and local action, in advancing people-centred smart city development also towards the vision of global digital compact…(More)”.

California Governor Launches New Digital Democracy Tool

Curated on Posted on by Stefaan Verhulst

Article by Phil Willon: “California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Sunday announced a new digital democracy initiative that will attempt to connect residents directly with government officials in times of disaster and allow them to express their concerns about matters affecting their day-to-day lives.

The web-based initiative, called Engaged California, will go live with a focus on aiding victims of the deadly wildfires in Pacific Palisades and Altadena who are struggling to recover. For example, comments shared via the online forum could potentially prompt government action regarding insurance coverage, building standards or efforts to require utilities to bury power lines underground.

In a written statement, Newsom described the pilot program as “a town hall for the modern era — where Californians share their perspectives, concerns, and ideas geared toward finding real solutions.”


“We’re starting this effort by more directly involving Californians in the LA firestorm response and recovery,” he added. “As we recover, reimagine, and rebuild Los Angeles, we will do it together.”

The Democrat’s administration has ambitious plans for the effort that go far beyond the wildfires. Engaged California is modeled after a program in Taiwan that became an essential bridge between the public and the government at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Taiwanese government has relied on it to combat online political disinformation as well…(More)”.

Using human mobility data to quantify experienced urban inequalities

Curated on Posted on by Stefaan Verhulst

Paper by Fengli Xu et al: “The lived experience of urban life is shaped by personal mobility through dynamic relationships and resources, marked not only by access and opportunity, but also inequality and segregation. The recent availability of fine-grained mobility data and context attributes ranging from venue type to demographic mixture offer researchers a deeper understanding of experienced inequalities at scale, and pose many new questions. Here we review emerging uses of urban mobility behaviour data, and propose an analytic framework to represent mobility patterns as a temporal bipartite network between people and places. As this network reconfigures over time, analysts can track experienced inequality along three critical dimensions: social mixing with others from specific demographic backgrounds, access to different types of facilities, and spontaneous adaptation to unexpected events, such as epidemics, conflicts or disasters. This framework traces the dynamic, lived experiences of urban inequality and complements prior work on static inequalities experience at home and work…(More)”.

Local Government: Artificial intelligence use cases

Curated on Posted on by Stefaan Verhulst

Repository by the (UK) Local Government Association: “Building on the findings of our recent AI survey, which highlighted the need for practical examples, this bank showcases the diverse ways local authorities are leveraging AI. 

Within this collection, you’ll discover a spectrum of AI adoption, ranging from utilising AI assistants to streamline back-office tasks to pioneering the implementation of bespoke Large Language Models (LLMs). These real-world use cases exemplify the innovative spirit driving advancements in local government service delivery. 

Whether your council is at the outset of its AI exploration or seeking to expand its existing capabilities, this bank offers a wealth of valuable insights and best practices to support your organisation’s AI journey…(More)”.