San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan is openly embracing artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance city operations. He's using tools like ChatGPT to draft speeches, manage the city's budget, and streamline various processes. Mahan believes AI adoption will eliminate mundane tasks and improve services for the city's roughly one million residents.

Mahan's strategy includes encouraging government workers to adopt AI, with plans to train 1,000 employees—about 15% of the workforce—by next year. These employees will use AI for tasks ranging from responding to pothole complaints to optimizing bus routes and using surveillance cameras to solve crimes. The city has invested over $35,000 to purchase 89 ChatGPT licenses for city workers, demonstrating its commitment to AI integration.

Andrea Arjona Amador, who leads electric mobility programs at the city's transportation department, is an early AI adopter in San Jose. She secured a $12 million grant for electric vehicle chargers by using a customized AI agent to review grant proposals and draft necessary documents. She also created a chatbot to edit the tone and language of her professional writing, showcasing AI's versatility.

Mahan emphasizes the importance of human oversight, stating that while AI can significantly reduce the time and effort required for tasks, independent verification and common sense are still necessary. He is transparent about using AI for background memos and speeches, setting a precedent for other government officials who might hesitate to admit using such tools. Other politicians might be skittish about admitting a chatbot co-wrote their speech or helped draft a $5.6 billion budget, but Mahan is leading by example.

San Jose's AI initiatives are part of a broader trend in the Bay Area, where mayors are promoting AI adoption while ensuring guidelines and standards to mitigate potential risks. San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie announced a plan to provide nearly 30,000 city workers with access to Microsoft's Copilot chatbot, emphasizing privacy and bias safeguards.

Mahan remains optimistic about AI's potential to enhance productivity in roles within city government. He believes AI can significantly improve the efficiency of tasks such as finance, accounting, HR, and grant writing, potentially increasing employee productivity by 20 to 50%. His approach underscores the importance of transparency and continuous improvement in adopting new technologies to benefit the community effectively.

While some government agencies have been secretive about using chatbots for assistance, Mahan is open about his ChatGPT-written background memos that he consults when making speeches. Mahan said the idea is to try things, be transparent, look for problems, flag them, share them across different government agencies, and then work with vendors and internal teams to problem solve. He acknowledges that adopting new technologies can be bumpy.