RMAIIG AI Ethics SIG

Cities and agencies are increasingly using AI and “smart city” systems to manage traffic, allocate resources, improve public services, and respond to emergencies. Done well, these tools can reduce friction and help communities thrive. Done poorly, they can expand surveillance, deepen inequities, and create opaque systems that are hard to audit or contest.

Join us for a practical, welcoming discussion where we’ll explore:

• Smart city use cases: Where AI shows up in government today, from 311 routing and permitting to traffic optimization, utilities, and emergency response
• Surveillance and privacy: When do sensors and analytics become too invasive, and what consent, limits, and retention rules should apply?
• Fairness and access: Who benefits and who is burdened when AI shapes services, enforcement, or infrastructure planning?
• Accountability and transparency: What does the public deserve to know about how systems work, what data they use, and how decisions are reviewed?
• Procurement and vendor lock-in: How can governments buy AI responsibly, require auditability, and avoid being stuck with black boxes?
• Security and resilience: What new cyber and reliability risks appear when critical city systems depend on AI?

Whether you work in government, tech, policy, research, civic advocacy, or you are simply curious, bring a local example you have noticed and a question you want to stress-test with the group.

AI is changing how stories are written, illustrated, voiced, translated, and distributed. It can lower barriers for new creators and help people communicate across language and ability. It can also flood the world with low-effort content, blur the line between authentic voice and synthetic output, and scale persuasion in ways that are hard to see in the moment.

Join us for a friendly, thoughtful discussion where we’ll explore:

• Authorship and voice: When AI helps write, who is the author and what counts as genuine creative intent?
• AI slop and the attention economy: What happens when platforms are saturated with cheap, optimized content, and how does that change culture and discovery?
• Disclosure and trust: When should AI assistance be disclosed in fiction, nonfiction, journalism, or marketing?
• Cultural impact: Does AI widen participation in storytelling, or amplify stereotypes and appropriation at scale?
• Persuasion and manipulation: How do we distinguish art, entertainment, and education from targeted influence?
• Practical norms: What policies or creator guidelines would you actually adopt for schools, studios, platforms, or communities?

Whether you are a writer, artist, educator, technologist, student, or simply curious, bring a story example you love and a scenario you want to stress-test with the group.

AI’s growth is tightly linked to energy and infrastructure. Data centers can bring jobs and investment, but they also raise hard questions about grid reliability, electricity prices, water use, and emissions. Communities and policymakers are actively debating who should bear the costs of upgrades and how to ensure the benefits are shared fairly. Join us for a practical, welcoming discussion where we’ll explore:

• Demand and reliability: What happens to grid planning when large new “AI loads” arrive quickly and unpredictably?
• Rates and fairness: If grid upgrades drive rate increases, who should pay, and how do we protect households and small businesses?
• Boom and bust risk: What happens if we build out the grid for AI demand and then the bubble bursts, leaving everyone to pay for stranded infrastructure?
• Climate and clean energy claims: How should we evaluate “100% renewable” or “net zero” commitments tied to data center growth?
• Transparency and disclosure: What should companies and utilities publish about energy use, emissions, and water impacts?
• Transparency and local governance: What should companies and utilities publish about energy use, emissions, and water impacts, and what questions should cities and counties ask when approving data centers?

Whether you work in energy, tech, policy, research, or you’re simply curious, bring your questions and a local scenario you’d like to stress-test with the group.