Page 12 - U4SSC Guiding principles for artificial intelligence in cities

2 Guidance for artificial intelligence (AI)

AI, almost intrinsically, delegates human tasks to machines (e.g., computers) and in some cases
completely replaces them (e.g., autonomous systems). Therefore, it is important and imperative to
achieve assurance in AI systems for their proper functioning.

In this document, a set of guiding principles is included to design, develop and deploy AI systems.
These principles effectively manifest and express the values cities need to instil to achieve a
trustworthy and safe AI based smart sustainable city services. The combination of target AI principles
selected by cities constitutes a specific direction and focus for their AI systems.

The successful implementation of AI principles may not be guaranteed, and cities will need to exert
additional efforts to ensure their compliance in AI systems. However, these additional efforts will
render AI systems more reliable and trustworthy in urban contexts.

The Scope of this Document: It is important to mention that this document:

– is intended to be used by city administrations that aim to develop and implement guiding
principles for AI in their urban contexts. Therefore, it targets smart and sustainable cities and
communities;

– is NOT about identifying a comprehensive list of AI solutions in smart sustainable cities (SSCs). It
is rather about providing principles-based guidance in using AI for SSCs. AI use case examples
are mentioned in the document; however, it would be practically impossible to exhaustively
identify all AI use cases in a city context;
– can be used by all aspiring cities that aim to implement AI solutions regardless of their size and
context;

– is technology agnostic within the context of overall AI technologies; and
– is a framework document that can be adopted by cities and tailored to their own specific needs
and contexts. In addition to guiding principles, it also provides a non-exhaustive list of enablers,
which can be used selectively by cities to accelerate the implementation of their AI principles.
A short list of policy instrument alternatives and governance options are also included to help
cities adopt AI principles.

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