In processes of urban datafication the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) for public purposes is gaining importance. Many cities adopt AI-based policies and practices, understood as artifacts capable of making decisions. These are both grassroot practices targeting the purposes of sectoral urban policies and a sort of “regulatory sandboxes”, since many AI systems are locally adopted and managed in a regulatory vacuum, lacking wider legal and operational frameworks. Meanwhile, a tension between public strategies to foster the development of AI industry and the attempts to establish regulatory frames aimed at human-centered and trustworthy AI affects higher scale agendas of AI governance and metagovernance, in which public actors compete with private self-regulation (e.g. the EU framework under scrutiny). Research literature on urban AI policies has identified the sectoral purposes and consequences of AI, big data and digital platforms utilization, as well as the relationships between AI and smart city. Although local actors deal with the same tensions between deployment and regulation of AI, trying to “govern algorithms, while governing by algorithms” (Kuziemsky, Misuraca 2020) and managing trade-offs between negative externalities and advantages of AI, social sciences have only partially focused on these governance challenges. Thus, our research tries to answer questions about power in AI governance and policy making, such as: how are these trade-offs perceived? What are the relationships among single practices and wider legal frameworks and actions? Which is the impact on urban policy and management? What are the relationships of power between local governments, supplier companies and expert knowledge? What governance arrangements have been put in place? The paper presents the results of an ongoing research on AI-based policies and practices carried out by Italian municipalities (2019-2022). Cases have been mapped through media coverage, municipal websites and policy documents, considering: smart city projects, sectors and purposes of AI use, funding sources, AI models, ethical concerns, public, private and knowledge actors involved. Two in-depth case studies, based on interviews, are being carried out.

The urban governance of AI: policies and practices of the italian municipalities / D'Albergo, Ernesto; Fasciani, Tommaso; Giovanelli, Giorgio. - (2022). (Intervento presentato al convegno Midterm Conference ESA Political Sociology 2022. "Across and Beyond Covid-19. The Future of European Political Sociology" tenutosi a Lausanne; Switzerland).

The urban governance of AI: policies and practices of the italian municipalities

Ernesto d'Albergo
;
Tommaso Fasciani
;
Giorgio Giovanelli
2022

Abstract

In processes of urban datafication the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) for public purposes is gaining importance. Many cities adopt AI-based policies and practices, understood as artifacts capable of making decisions. These are both grassroot practices targeting the purposes of sectoral urban policies and a sort of “regulatory sandboxes”, since many AI systems are locally adopted and managed in a regulatory vacuum, lacking wider legal and operational frameworks. Meanwhile, a tension between public strategies to foster the development of AI industry and the attempts to establish regulatory frames aimed at human-centered and trustworthy AI affects higher scale agendas of AI governance and metagovernance, in which public actors compete with private self-regulation (e.g. the EU framework under scrutiny). Research literature on urban AI policies has identified the sectoral purposes and consequences of AI, big data and digital platforms utilization, as well as the relationships between AI and smart city. Although local actors deal with the same tensions between deployment and regulation of AI, trying to “govern algorithms, while governing by algorithms” (Kuziemsky, Misuraca 2020) and managing trade-offs between negative externalities and advantages of AI, social sciences have only partially focused on these governance challenges. Thus, our research tries to answer questions about power in AI governance and policy making, such as: how are these trade-offs perceived? What are the relationships among single practices and wider legal frameworks and actions? Which is the impact on urban policy and management? What are the relationships of power between local governments, supplier companies and expert knowledge? What governance arrangements have been put in place? The paper presents the results of an ongoing research on AI-based policies and practices carried out by Italian municipalities (2019-2022). Cases have been mapped through media coverage, municipal websites and policy documents, considering: smart city projects, sectors and purposes of AI use, funding sources, AI models, ethical concerns, public, private and knowledge actors involved. Two in-depth case studies, based on interviews, are being carried out.
2022
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11573/1680391
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