Welcome
Welcome to the launch of publicsectorai.tech.
This is the start of a project by Adrianna Tan, director of product management at San Francisco Digital Services, to make sense of the developments in artificial intelligence in the civic tech and govtech space.
All opinions expressed here and in the newsletter are my own, not my employer's. All links provided here are not necessarily endorsements.
What is AI for? What is it capable of? Who is it for? What does it do?
Through a combination of readings, discussions, literature review, case studies, I'm hoping to share what I learn so that other public sector employees can understand what they need to know.
Where do you stand on AI?
At the point of launch, I am AI-curious; and also cynical at the same time. I think the technology has the potential to change the world, but it's essential to ask, for whom? And in which direction?
I care very deeply about the ethics of technology, and think that in the AI hype, it's important to always center our attention on the the people we serve.
I believe that if vendors are going to sell us AI technologies, then public servants need to be able to analyze and review tools and services, ask the right questions, and develop frameworks for understanding whether we are moving the needle for the people, or just to adopt new technology.
What do you see for this site?
To start with, I have a reading list that I want to share. Later on, I'd like to figure out how to discuss relevant topics. I'm hoping to identify a group of like-minded individuals who are also public servants who are interested in learning more, and in engaging critically.
I've just published the first newsletter, a roundup of the latest developments as of March 2024. As it stands, things are moving so fast that just before I hit publish, I had to add a few additional new things. I think the right format for the newsletter and for this site is for the newsletter to focus more on 'state of AI / public sector'; and for this site may be more 'what you can do' / 'how you can think about' AI. I'm open to feedback and suggestions.
A note on RSS
As of now, you can subscribe to this site through RSS and to the newsletter as well. At some point, I will look into merging both feeds.