Seattle halts expansion of Microsoft Copilot as new mayor takes AI stock
Five months after issuing a “responsible AI plan” that provides guidelines for municipal use of artificial intelligence, the City of Seattle is putting the brakes on the legal deployment of the technology to city employees.
Mayor Katie Wilson last month halted the planned rollout of Microsoft Copilot citywide, as first reported Monday in the Seattle Times. His predecessor, Mayor Bruce Harrell, accepted the introduction before leaving office in December.
“While technology implementation has been delayed, academic and administrative work continues,” Megan Erb, spokeswoman for the Seattle Information Technology Department, told GeekWire. “The City is still running educational demonstrations in departments, and working to advance our core work in data management and information readiness.”
In September, Seattle released its AI plan, which includes training and skill-building opportunities for city employees, and establishes a framework to facilitate and evaluate the use of AI tools in city operations. The city is also conducting pilot testing with 500 employees. The technology is available at no additional cost to Microsoft 365 users under Seattle’s enterprise agreement.
Participants reported:
- Collectively saving more than 450 hours of work per week, such as writing communications, report preparation, document analysis and research.
- The technology proved to be very useful for writing clearly, generating quick summaries of documents and meeting notes, and quick access to policies and regulations.
- 83% said Copilot Chat provided “business value.”
- 79% said it was a good user experience.
Seattle has been a leader in efforts to adopt next-generation AI tools, and claims to have released the country’s first productive AI policy in the fall of 2023. Even before the recently released AI program, Seattle already had policies requiring “human-in-the-loop” oversight, meaning that employees must review the results AI produces before official use and disclose when work is assisted by AI. The city also identified prohibited applications, such as AI in decision-making and facial recognition, due to concerns about bias and reliability.
Concerns about AI regulations and oversight are widespread. A series of investigations published earlier this year by news organization Cascade PBS found that many Washington cities have limited safeguards regarding the use of AI, raising public trust and privacy concerns. Seattle was not among the cities surveyed.
Seattle leaders in the past have framed their effort as a balance between embracing new technology and upholding their core social responsibility, stressing that AI is a tool — not a substitute for workers.
Erb said the Copilot deployment delay is part of a “phased process” to ensure “the City responsibly evaluates and uses artificial intelligence tools, meets all privacy and security requirements, and delivers solutions that provide clear benefits to employees while maintaining the City’s AI commitments.”
Rob Lloyd, a chief technology officer in Seattle, resigned last month, effective March 27, to become executive director of the Center for Digital Government. The city is looking for a replacement.
In December, the city appointed Lisa Qian as its first AI chief. His experience includes serving as senior data science manager at LinkedIn, as well as other technology company leadership positions.
During the fall budget process, the Seattle City Council asked the Seattle IT Department to provide quarterly reports on the use of AI, and that information will be submitted on April 1.
The city previously identified 41 priority projects where AI could improve government performance and public services. An update on those efforts will be included in a future report, Erb said.
