Silicon Valley cities hit with records requests for residents’ emails to train controversial AI

BAY AREA RESIDENTS who emailed their officials in the past few years may be surprised to learn their correspondence could train a company’s AI for future use.

Mountain View-based company GovernmentGPT filed 90 California Public Records Act requests with multiple cities across the Bay Area for emails from residents addressed to mayors, councilmembers and city clerks from 2020 to 2023. The goal is to create an artificial intelligence tool that can easily summarize a resident’s thoughts based on public comments. AI experts have raised concerns about privacy, consent and ethics when training an AI with this data.