143. A New Frontier for Local Government: Generative AI

07/22/24 • 20 min

Generative artificial intelligence has the potential to transform local government. That’s why city officials everywhere are working to harness its promise—from redesigning infrastructure to reimagining emergency response—alongside managing its pitfalls.

Still, it’s a new frontier for municipalities, one that’s especially difficult to confront without the help of peers. To bridge the gap, in October 2023, our Government Innovation program at Bloomberg Philanthropies together with the Bloomberg Center for Government Excellence (GovEx) at Johns Hopkins University launched City AI Connect: a global learning community and digital platform for cities to trial and advance the usage of generative artificial intelligence to improve public services—together.

Building on more than a decade of bolstering data capabilities in city halls, our City AI Connect team has spent the past 8 months in the artificial intelligence-trenches with local officials. Each day on the platform, more than 500 city leaders convene to experiment, strategy-share, and navigate the intricacies of putting this emerging technology to work for residents’ benefit.

On this episode of Follow the Data, Katherine Oliver sits down with Claudia Juech from our Bloomberg Philanthropies Government Innovation program team alongside Denise Riedl, Chief Innovation Officer of the City of South Bend, Indiana and Kyle Patterson, Chief Innovation Officer of the City of Boise, Idaho—two City AI Connect super users—to hear about the innerworkings of this new effort. They also discuss how their cities—and peers in other cities—are capitalizing on the generative artificial intelligence movement to bring their governments—and communities—into the future, for good.

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142. Using Data to Tackle Air Pollution

Air pollution is now the second leading risk of death worldwide, accounting for 8.1 million deaths globally in 2021.

As the world’s urban population grows, it is critical for policymakers and citizens to have access to data-driven scientific research that can empower communities and inform important environmental, air quality, and public health policy decisions.

The State of Global Air 2024 report by the Health Effects Institute provides a comprehensive analysis of data for air quality and health impacts for countries around the world. It serves as a key resource for governments and initiatives such as Breathe Cities, informing their work supporting cities to curb their air pollution and climate emissions.

On this episode, Katherine Oliver sits down with Antha Williams, who leads the Environment program at Bloomberg Philanthropies, Dr. Pallavi Pant, who leads the Global Health program at the Health Effects Institute, and Jaime Pumarejo, the first-ever Executive Director for the Breathe Cities initiative and the former Mayor of Barranquilla, Colombia, to discuss the state of global air pollution, how policymakers can use air quality data to inform their work towards climate progress, and why it’s important to tackle this issue at the local level to improve and save lives.

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144. A Home for Arts and Culture in Lower Manhattan

Last year, the Perelman Performing Arts Center opened in New York City - the last major piece in the rebuilding of the World Trade Center site. Its opening marks a new chapter in the story of Lower Manhattan as a center of culture and creativity.

The space - dubbed PAC NYC for short - includes three theatres with movable walls and seats that expand and contort to create endless possibilities of layouts to stage a wide variety of shows. From a reimagination of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cats to free programming on the lobby stage, PAC NYC’s inaugural year has hosted an impressive range of performances.

Over the past year, PAC has welcome around 200,000 guests into their building and hosted 238 separate free performances with artists from 24 different countries.

On this episode of Follow the Data, Katherine Oliver is joined by Khady Kamara Nunez, Executive Director of PAC NYC, and Bill Rauch, Artistic Director of PAC NYC, to celebrate the one-year anniversary of the PAC's opening. Together, they discuss what drew them to working at this brand-new venue and what's to come for the Perelman Performing Arts Center.