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Columbia outlines citywide AI governance, pilots with Google Gemini and CityDetect use cases
Summary
City Chief Information Officer Sylvia White presented a city AI governance framework, acceptable‑use policy and multiple pilots, including a Google Gemini proof‑of‑concept and customer service pilots with the city's utility vendor; staff emphasized human review, bias mitigation and training.
Sylvia White, Columbia's chief information officer, briefed council on steps to govern city use of artificial intelligence and on active and proposed pilots. White said the city has developed an acceptable‑use policy that legal has reviewed and will be added to the employee handbook; she emphasized keeping a human in the loop, protecting privacy and mitigating bias as core principles. "Our focus will be on how we can, improve service delivery while guarding privacy, equity, and public trust," White told council.
White described current and planned use cases: CityDetect is already used for right‑of‑way detection on garbage‑truck camera imagery; engineering uses generative tools in plan review; customer service is piloting Google Gemini and vendor integration to automate reconnections and collections outreach. She said the city is participating in the Bloomberg Harvard Responsive Cities Network and will deploy 500 Grow with Google training licenses to support staff skills. White outlined next steps: publish the policy, establish procurement and procurement disclosure standards for AI, stand up governance and training, and report pilot outcomes to council.
