Matt Mahan

I am concerned, as I think most people are, that AI is coming quickly.

It's very powerful.

It could do a lot of good.

It could also do a lot of harm.

We reached out to and convinced three of the leading AI companies, Google, OpenAI, and Anthropic, to actually partner with our library system to make their tools freely accessible along with tutorials, in-person trainings.

and really try to open up this technology and make it accessible for all of our residents.

We have 700,000 people in San Jose with a library card, city of a million people, 70% of a library card.

We want everybody in our city and ultimately everybody in the world needs to have access to these tools and the training and tech that they need to be able to participate and share in this new emerging economy.

If we don't get ahead of this, there's real risk of harming people.

Yeah, I think it's a really important question.

And I have the benefit of being the only candidate in this race that has already had experience regulating AI.

We use technology throughout San Jose.

In fact, we've been on the leading edge of deploying AI to improve public services.

We created something called the GovAI Coalition that has grown from a handful of cities to over 900 public agencies worldwide.

that are convening and setting policy around the responsible and ethical use of AI.

So what does that mean in practice?

When we deploy a new tool like automated license plate readers, we have a responsibility for being totally transparent with the public.

What do we collect?

Where, when, why, how's the data used?

Is it shared with anyone?