Agenda Summary
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Calling on the Mayor to adopt policies prohibiting city staff from using artificial intelligence to generate public-facing media and prohibiting the replacement of city employees with artificial intelligence as detailed within.
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Official Text
WHEREAS: The City of Somerville should prioritize community, prosperity, and the people who make Somerville great, and should not use artificial intelligence to displace the artists who make its culture or the employees who deliver its services; and
WHEREAS: Somerville is a city of artists that values art over artifice and recognizes the priceless value of human creative work; and
WHEREAS: Working artists make their livelihoods from creative work; and
WHEREAS: Public-facing images, video, and music produced by the city represent the city and its values to its residents; and
WHEREAS: City employees are part of our community and are the people who deliver the city’s services to residents; and
WHEREAS: The city has a responsibility to its residents to create a prosperous and rich
community, and a responsibility to its employees not to eliminate their
livelihoods in favor of automation; NOW, THEREFORE BE IT,
RESOLVED: That the Somerville City Council calls on the mayor to adopt a policy prohibiting city staff from using any artificial intelligence system to generate images, video, or music for public-facing city use; AND BE IT FURTHER
RESOLVED: That the Somerville City Council calls on the mayor to adopt a policy prohibiting the layoff of any city employee, or the elimination of any city position, as a result of or in order to substitute for work performed by an artificial intelligence system.