The city of South Bend has won a $1 million grant to develop a system that uses artificial intelligence to anticipate problems that residents experience with city services before they grow bigger.
The Mayor James Mueller administration on Tuesday announced they’re one of 24 applicants that Bloomberg Philanthropies has chosen. The city won a similar Bloomberg grant in 2018 to develop a rideshare-as-an-employer-benefit program that’s still operating as a separate nonprofit called Commuters Trust.
The city, working on the project with the University of Notre Dame, says their winning idea reimagines 311, the city’s existing information and help hotline. They’ll combine data the city already has with data it obtains from partners, using AI to identify “emerging service needs and connect residents with support before problems become crises.”
As an example, Mueller says AI’s ability to recognize patterns across many types of data could help the city refer someone who’s been late paying their utility bill to programs that can help.
“I know there are a lot of concerns, and rightfully so, about where AI and the new technologies are heading, but at the same time, government, philanthropies, nonprofits, they can figure out how to use this new technology that’s coming and put it to good use," Mueller said.
