Intersectoral Collaboration and Social Justice Concerns in Artificial Intelligence Implementation at the Community Level

Introduction

Artificial intelligence technologies offer a wealth of opportunities for government to serve constituencies and realize its mission. Private technology providers paint a picture of unlimited possibilities and the fulfillment of dreamlike visions. The reality is often different with failed projects or efforts with negative consequences causing the damaging of the community’s human rights and the exacerbation of existing inequalities. These efforts can also interact with other AI projects in the commercial and civic spaces. This state of affairs often leads to angry resistance from multiple groups. What accounts for these different outcomes? Understanding the nature of local communities is an important part.

This chapter explores AI implementations in the public sector offering ideas about successful and unsuccessful community engagement. It proposes a model for considering engagement decisions using a participatory decision-making model, suggesting key decision points for the government to consider when making choices about implementation. The chapter examines how these efforts might develop within a community with a community information ecosystem and how this accounts for positive and negative outcomes (Goldkind & McNutt, 2019). It also suggests that efforts that blend various key stakeholders including civic technologists, advocacy groups, community members and civil servants may lead to more successful outcomes.