Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Ai Policy topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Fort Collins CIO urges ethical AI leadership; city to refine 2025 policy and evaluate vendors
Summary
The city's chief information officer told council the work-plan item on AI will prioritize ethics, transparency and human oversight; staff said a citywide AI policy exists (2025) and will be refined while vendor evaluations and environmental impacts of data centers are factored into procurement.
Kevin Wilkins, Fort Collins’ chief information officer, told council the city is preparing a work‑plan item to build citywide AI leadership and governance that would reduce friction for residents and free staff for higher‑value work while protecting ethics and transparency.
"We need to lead AI and not let AI lead us," Wilkins said, describing the effort as an organizational leadership role—training, governance and operationalizing responsible AI tools for internal and external-facing services. He said the city established a citywide AI policy in 2025 and will continue to refine it.
Wilkins said staff are evaluating five leading vendors and will weigh not only capability but responsible model training, data stewardship and environmental impacts tied to data-center operations. Council members asked whether staff will require policies that keep a human in the decision loop and whether specific vendors will be mandated; Wilkins said humans must remain part of decision‑making and declined to name potential vendors at this early stage.
The city plans additional work on criteria for ethical procurement, transparency about AI use for residents, and outreach to reduce public fear or misunderstanding about AI applications in government.
