HomeMy WebLinkAboutCouncil Agenda - 2024-02-12 SSpecial Council Meeting
Agenda
Monday, February 12, 2024, 1:00 p.m.
Council Chambers - Hybrid
City of Kitchener
200 King Street W, Kitchener, ON N2G 4G7
People interested in participating in this meeting can register online using the delegation registration
form at www.kitchener.ca/delegation or via email at delegation (a)kitchener.ca. Please refer to the
delegation section on the agenda below for registration in-person and electronic participation
deadlines. Written comments received will be circulated prior to the meeting and will form part of the
public record.
The meeting live -stream and archived videos are available at www.kitchener.ca/watchnow
*Accessible formats and communication supports are available upon request. If you require
assistance to take part in a city meeting or event, please call 519-741-2345 or TTY 1-866-969-9994.*
Pages
1. PART ONE -1:00 p.m.
Part One of the Special Council meeting will take place at:
• Communitech at The Tannery Building - 151 Charles St W Suite 100,
Kitchener, ON N2G 1 H6, to consider the Strategic Session Report on
the agenda this date.
NOTE. Anyone wishing to attend the portion of the meeting at Communitech will
need to check into the reception desk to be led to the meeting space.
Following that portion of the agenda, Members of Council will return to Kitchener
City Hall, 200 King Street West, Council Chambers to consider the balance of
the agenda.
2. Commencement
The meeting will begin with a Land Acknowledgement given by the Mayor.
3. Disclosure of Pecuniary Interest and the General Nature Thereof
Members of Council and members of the City's local boards/committees are
required to file a written statement when they have a conflict of interest. If a
conflict is declared, please visit www.kitchener.ca/conflict to submit your written
form.
4. Delegations
Pursuant to Council's Procedural By-law, delegations are permitted to address
the Committee for a maximum of five (5) minutes. All Delegations where
possible are encouraged to register prior to the start of the meeting. For
Delegates who are attending in-person, registration is permitted up to the start
of the meeting. Delegates who are interested in attending virtually must register
by 11:00 a.m. on February 12, 2024, in order to participate electronically.
5. Strategic Session Reports
5.1 Digital Kitchener Innovation Lab exploration of 60 m 4
Artificial Intelligence, COR -2024-068
6. Recess and Reconvene
The Special Council meeting will recess following consideration of the Strategic
Session Reports and return to Kitchener City Hall, 200 King Street West,
Council Chambers, for Part Two of the Special Council agenda.
7. PART TWO - 3:00 p.m. (Approximately)
Part two of the Special Council meeting will take place at:
• Kitchener City Hall, 200 King Street West, Kitchener, Council
Chambers, to consider the balance of the agenda.
8. Mayoral Business and Updates - Mayor B. Vrbanovic
9. In -camera Meeting Authorization
Note: Any member of Council may question the appropriateness of a listed in -
camera item. This may be done during the special Council meeting or at the
beginning of the in -camera session.
Council is asked to enact the following resolution to authorize an in -camera
meeting:
"That an in -camera meeting of City Council be held immediately following
the special council meeting this date to consider a personal matters about
an Identifiable individual, including municipal employees receive education
and training as authorized by Section 239 (2) (b) and (3.1) of the Municipal
Act, 2001, respectively."
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9.1 Council Orientation - Police Services 60 m
(Education and Training - Section 239 (3.1)),
CAO -2024-084
Council will receive education and training on this matter, no direction is
required.
9.2 CAO Performance Review (Personal matters 30 m
about an Identifiable individual, including
municipal employees - Section 239 (2) (b))
This is an information matter, no direction is required.
10. Recess and Reconvene
11. PART THREE - 6:00 p.m. (Approximately)
11.1 Groh Public School - Project with Activa - 60 m
Harvest Park Land Planning Project
Grade 7 Students from Groh Public School will be making a
presentation to Kitchener City Council on a development proposal they
completed, with the support of Activa, and other industry professionals
related to the development of Activa's Harvest Park lands in the South
of Kitchener as a base.
Note: This portion of the meeting will not be streamed on the City's
website.
12. Adjournment
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Staff Report
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Corporate Services Department www.kitchener.ca
REPORT TO: Special Council
DATE OF MEETING: February 12, 2024
SUBMITTED BY: Dan Murray, Director, Technology Innovation & Services, 519-741-2200
ext. 7825
PREPARED BY: Courtney Zinn, Lab Director/Technology Strategist, Technology
Innovation & Services, 519-741-2200 ext. 7034
WARD(S) INVOLVED: All Ward(s)
DATE OF REPORT: October 16, 2023
REPORT NO.: COR -2024-068
SUBJECT: Digital Kitchener Innovation Lab exploration of Artificial Intelligence
RECOMMENDATION:
For discussion
REPORT HIGHLIGHTS:
• The purpose of this report is to provide Council with a Strategic Session update on the
exploration and use of artificial intelligence within the Digital Kitchener Innovation Lab and
considerations for broader use within the city. Staff will engage Council in three broad
questions following the update from staff and presentation by Jimmy Lin, Cheriton Chair in
the School of Computer Science, University of Waterloo and Co-director of the Waterloo Al
Institute
• The key finding of this report is the use of artificial intelligence is expected to become more
pervasive and the city should continue to take steps to ensure responsible adoption of these
tools.
• There are no financial implications.
• This report has been posted to the City's website with the agenda in advance of the council
/ committee meeting
• This report supports Stewarding a Better City Together: Focuses on City employees as
stewards of Kitchener; responsive, innovative, diverse & accountable public servants
working together to serve residents; removing barriers and championing a better city and a
better world.
BACKGROUND:
Through the Digital Kitchener strategy, the city has committed to building a city that is inclusive,
on -demand, connected and innovative. Investments in modern technology and partnerships
within our local technology ecosystem support and strengthen our ability to efficiently deliver
services to residents and meet their expectations in an increasingly technology -centric world.
*** This information is available in accessible formats upon request. ***
Please call 519-741-2345 or TTY 1-866-969-9994 for assistance.
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The Digital Kitchener Innovation Lab supports our drive for innovation by focusing on exploring
emerging technologies and how they might be applied in the municipal context. While some of
the technologies explored may not be fully adopted for years to come, staff can learn a lot about
how new approaches and technologies being developed today could change how the city
delivers services in the future. Through experimentation and prototyping, staff envision future
possibilities and understand the opportunities and potential risks new technologies could bring.
These lessons inform our approach to technology adoption and provide insights for how staff
might prepare for the future.
Looking toward a refresh of the Digital Kitchener strategy, staff are considering the most pressing
technology issues for our community. Artificial Intelligence (AI), specifically generative Al (Al
able to create new content), is rapidly evolving and quickly becoming more accessible and
integrated into many popular office technologies and customer experience applications.
At Council's strategic session on February 12th, Council will receive a presentation on
considerations for the adoption of Al from Jimmy Lin, Cheriton Chair in the School of Computer
Science, University of Waterloo and Co-director of the Waterloo Al Institute. Following the
presentation, staff will share their work of the Digital Kitchener Innovation Lab in exploring and
developing Al driven tools for city use cases and facilitate a discussion of potential use cases,
risks, applicability, and deployment of these technologies in the municipal context. The session
will be held at the Communitech Hub.
REPORT:
Artificial Intelligence and the rapid rise of generative Al
Al refers to machines and software that exhibit intelligence, such as learning, reasoning,
planning, problem -solving, predicting, and the use of language and vision.' With the advent of
big data (large, complex data sets), and driven by the explosion of computing capacity and
speed, Al tools are being increasingly integrated into technological solutions that are central to
our everyday life, business, society, and the environment.2
Recently, large language and generative models (e.g. ChatGPT), trained on vast, historical
data sets to understand patterns in language, images and audio, have become prevalent and
more easily accessible, advancing adoption by the general population and accelerating the
need for discussion and guidelines for how Al might be adopted responsibly.
Risk assessment and guidelines
The capabilities of Al models are quickly evolving, offering exciting possibilities while also
presenting risks and a multitude of considerations for their responsible adoption.
All levels of government have begun grappling with these risks through principles and
frameworks to guide their adoption into the public sector. Within the city, staff are considering
these guidelines and their integration into our existing processes and procedures for evaluating
and adopting new technologies.
' https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/mckinsev-explainers/what-is-ai
'- https://uwaterloo.ca/artificial-intelligence-institute/
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Critical risks include:
- Data management, security and privacy — like any technology the city adopts, it is
critical that staff understand how data is handled and secured throughout its lifecycle.
- Identification of biases — as models are trained on historical data, any bias found in
the training data may also be found in the models generated and their outputs which
may perpetuate harmful views or stereotypes.
- Accuracy and reliability — Al models may vary in their ability to provide accurate and
reliable results depending on how they were trained and implemented. Understanding
the capabilities and limitations of models and their use cases is critical to using Al
tools effectively.
Future possibilities and challenges
Through the Digital Kitchener Innovation Lab, staff have experimented with a variety of Al tools
toward municipal applications including augmenting customer service through chat features that
help residents and customers more readily connect with the information they're looking for.
Integration of Al with technologies like Augmented Reality to offer on -demand information about
city facilities or amenities from their mobile devices and leveraging multi-lingual support to assist
residents in navigating city signs and notices.
In addition to customer experience, Al also offers potential to create efficiencies by proactively
identifying issues or modelling scenarios at a broader scale than our existing resources might
allow. Through our exploration, staff have also been testing approaches that could help in
addressing some of the identified risks to help ensure consistent, reliable and transparent
experiences. These approaches include limiting the scope of responses to content contained
within city websites and documents, citing references (such as policies or bylaws) in responses
and including links to the source for further information and context.
Discussion questions for Council:
- What opportunities do you foresee for the use of Al at the city?
- What concerns do you have about the adoption of Al within city operations?
- What do you see as the biggest barriers to the city's adoption of artificial intelligence?
STRATEGIC PLAN ALIGNMENT:
Stewarding a Better City Together: Focuses on City employees as stewards of Kitchener;
responsive, innovative, diverse & accountable public servants working together to serve
residents; removing barriers and championing a better city and a better world.
FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS:
Capital Budget — The recommendation has no impact on the Capital Budget.
Operating Budget — The recommendation has no impact on the Operating Budget.
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COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT:
INFORM — This report has been posted to the City's website with the agenda in advance of the
council / committee meeting.
CONSULT — Through the upcoming refresh of the Digital Kitchener strategy, an engagement
plan will be developed including considerations for the use of artificial intelligence and the
broader deployment of technology.
PREVIOUS REPORTS/AUTHORITIES:
There are no previous reports/authorities related to this matter.
APPROVED BY: Dan Chapman, Chief Administrative Officer
ATTACHMENTS:
No attachments
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