City of Boston Interim Guidelines for Using Generative AI

• Authority: Boston, MA
• Parent authority: Local governments
• Jurisdiction: United States
• Collections: U.S. state and local documents
• Most recent activity: Proposed
• Most recent activity date: 2023-05-18

Risk subdomain coverage

Good coverage — Comprehensive governance measures or mitigations with clear procedures relating to the risk subdomain are explicitly described.

• Compromise of privacy
• False or misleading information
• Overreliance and unsafe use
• Lack of capability or robustness
• Lack of transparency or interpretability

Minimal coverage — Brief mention but no specific mitigations, recommendations or governance measures relating to the risk subdomain are described.

• Unfair discrimination and misrepresentation
• Unequal performance across groups
• AI system security vulnerabilities
• Loss of human agency and autonomy
• Environmental harm

All other risk subdomains had no coverage in this document.

Risk Coverage Summary

The document has good coverage of approximately 8-10 subdomains, with strong focus on misinformation (3.1), privacy compromise (2.1), security vulnerabilities (2.2), lack of robustness (7.3), lack of transparency (7.4), overreliance (5.1), and unequal performance (1.3). Coverage is concentrated in misinformation, privacy/security, and AI system limitations domains.

Sector coverage

Good coverage — Comprehensive governance measures or mitigations with clear procedures relating to the sector are explicitly described.

• Public Administration (excl. National Security)

All other sectors had no coverage in this document.

Sectors Summary

This is an internal policy document governing AI use within City of Boston government operations. The primary sector governed is Public Administration (excluding National Security), as it applies to all city agencies and departments. The document does not regulate external sectors but rather governs how city employees use generative AI tools in their public service work.

Legislative Status

Other

Legislative Status Summary

This is an internal interim policy document for City of Boston employees that provides voluntary guidelines and best practices for using generative AI, with no formal enforcement mechanisms or legal penalties. It explicitly states it is interim guidance to 'encourage responsible experimentation' and should be 'replaced in the future with policies and standards.'

Actors

Proposer

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor
• Entities: City of Boston Department of Innovation and Technology; Santiago Garces, Chief Information Officer
• Summary: The document is authored by Santiago Garces, Chief Information Officer, and prepared by the City of Boston's Department of Innovation and Technology, as indicated in the header and throughout the document.

Target

• Entity Types: AI_User
• Entities: City of Boston employees; All City agencies and departments (excluding Boston Public Schools)
• Summary: The guidelines explicitly apply to all City of Boston agencies and departments except Boston Public Schools, targeting city employees who may use generative AI tools in their work.

Enforcer

• Summary: No enforcement body or enforcement mechanisms are specified in this interim guidance document. The document relies on voluntary compliance and professional judgment rather than formal enforcement.

Monitor

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor
• Entities: City of Boston Department of Innovation and Technology
• Summary: The Department of Innovation and Technology is positioned as the support and resource entity for questions and learning about generative AI, though no formal monitoring or oversight mechanisms are established.

AI Lifecycle Stages

Lifecycle stages covered by the documents, as defined in the OECD Framework for the Classification of AI Systems

• Build and Use Model
• Verify and Validate
• Deploy
• Operate and Monitor

AI Lifecycle Summary

The document primarily focuses on the Deploy and Operate and Monitor stages, with extensive coverage of how to use deployed generative AI tools responsibly. It provides minimal coverage of the Build and Use Model stage through coding examples, but does not substantially address planning, data collection, or verification stages.

Technical Scope

Terms relating to technical scope that are mentioned or implicitly referenced in the document

• AI Models
• AI Systems
• Generative AI

Technical Scope Summary

The document explicitly and extensively covers Generative AI, with multiple references throughout. It mentions AI models and AI systems in the context of generative technologies. It does not explicitly define or distinguish between frontier AI, general purpose AI, task-specific AI, foundation models, predictive AI, open-weight models, or compute thresholds.