What AI can and can't do yet

The hype around ChatGPT has made artificial intelligence a general trending topic and AI a buzzword – with all the possibilities, demands and challenges that this entails. "The topic is very attractive and it is really great to see the sparkle in the eyes of our colleagues in the administration," said Ingo Hinterding, who is Head of Prototyping at CityLAB Berlin, at the panel "Artificial Intelligence as the Engine of the Smart City: Visions of the Future and Realities" at the Smart Country Convention. "The prospect of AI simplifying everyday work enormously is very attractive," says Hinterding.

In the open innovation lab, he and his team develop AI prototypes, also for the Berlin administration: The AI assistant "Parla", for example, searches the written questions and the main committee procedures of the current legislative period of the Berlin House of Representatives – currently around 13,000 documents – and uses a large language model to create templates for answering the question asked. BerGPT supports the writing of e-mails, summaries and notes - and above all has data protection in mind. According to Hinterding, this is certainly an important point when it comes to AI and one in which the private use of ChatGPT differs greatly from the application in public administration.

Context is key

Torsten Graf, Head of Public Administration at the AI company Aleph Alpha, brings another keyword into play: context. "The AI assistant must be tailored to the specific tasks and requirements of the various authorities and employee roles in order to create added value and minimize risks," Graf said. This is because the respective context often changes during the working day and can range from a legal opinion to a LinkedIn post.

Dr. Eva Sonnenmoser, consultant in the Innovation Lab of the state government of Baden-Württemberg, sees educational work, further training opportunities and getting colleagues involved from the very beginning to be essential in the introduction of AI innovations. With the AI text assistant F13, all employees of the Baden-Württemberg state administration will soon have a tool at their disposal that helps with summarizing content, researching and writing short texts.

"It is important to show what AI can do - and what may not yet be possible," said Sonnenmoser. Expectation management is important, especially in view of the hype surrounding ChatGPT. But also, to raise awareness of the fact that there is also such a thing as AI hallucination. With the appropriate experts, AI could certainly be a driver of the smart city, Sonnenmoser said. "But if we position ourselves smartly, create the possibilities and deal with new technologies, then we can also be the engine of AI as a smart administration."