Following AI call to Council, city to host employee summit

The city of Austin is set to hold its first A.I. Summit on Nov. 20, promising to offer “dynamic panel discussions with AI experts and opportunities to connect with colleagues across City Departments,” according to the Eventbrite info. The summit will be open to city employees. The event comes on the heels of a call during City Council’s meeting that was generated by artificial intelligence. That call, which can be seen here, prompted Mayor Kirk Watson to post on the City Council Message Board on Sunday, writing, “Immediately after the Council meeting this past Thursday, City Clerk Myrna Rios and I talked about the AI generated call we received as part of Public Communications. We discussed the need to immediately get to the bottom of how this happened, what we can do to prevent it in the future and how we create security. Of course, our priority is protecting the ability of our public to communicate with us and to prevent misuse and abuse of the system. I’ve also included the City Manager and Deputy City Manager in this discussion. … I wanted you to know that action has started and also invite you to share any thoughts you have. As I know each of you do, I appreciate the Clerk taking initiative and moving swiftly.” As of Wednesday, no other Council member had replied to the post. City Council passed a resolution in February that asked for the creation of guidelines around the city’s use of AI and established basic guidelines for the technology in June.