By Jorge Casuso

April 13, 2026 -- Amid an intensifying debate about the benefits and perils of Artificial Intelligence (AI), the City Council on Tuesday will take up a proposal to make Santa Monica's government a national model for its "responsible" use.

Placed on the agenda by Mayor Caroline Torosis and Councilmembers Dan Hall and Jesse Zwick, the item directs staff to update the City’s AI policy "to reflect the current state" of the technology and to procure one or more enterprise AI systems.

The Councilmember discussion item also directs staff to teach AI skills as part of staff training and commit to a policy that protects workers from being displaced by the technology.

"Santa Monica can model what responsible government AI adoption looks like: tools chosen with care, workers consulted and trained, human judgment preserved where it matters most, and equity built in at the outset," a detailed attachment to the item states.

Titled "Encouraging Responsible AI Use," the attachment notes that "AI is no longer an emerging technology on the horizon," but "one of the most transformative technological shifts in a generation."

"It is already reshaping how work gets done across every sector of the economy, and residents deserve a municipal government that meets this moment thoughtfully and responsibly," the item states.

"The question for the City is not whether to engage with AI. The question is whether we shape its use deliberately, with strong values and resident and worker protections embedded from the start, or let it arrive without guardrails."

Noting the private sector has adopted AI at a "staggering" pace, the Councilmembers warn that by failing to embrace the new technology, government agencies "will struggle to attract the next generation of public servants and will risk losing the talented employees it already has."

The item directs staff to "actively encourage the use of AI tools by employees at all levels and across all departments."

"Many employees who have access to AI still do not use it because they do not see how the tools apply to their work, underscoring the importance of active, structured training rather than passive access alone," the item states.

The item also addresses fears that embracing AI could follow the private sector's lead and replace "the people who make Santa Monica’s City Hall work."

"The City’s approach must be guided by a clear commitment: AI is a tool to enable and empower City employees, not to eliminate jobs or undermine the workforce," the item states.

Public agencies nationwide are using AI, the item notes, "to handle routine data entry and processing, allowing limited human staff to focus" on the kind of complex work "that makes government jobs more fulfilling and more effective."

In addition, the item calls for giving employees and their union representatives "a voice in how AI tools are introduced into their workplaces."

"Workers should know when AI is being used in processes that affect their employment or evaluations," the item states. "And there must be an accessible pathway to raise concerns when AI is being used in ways that feel unfair or harmful."

Other restrictions include barring the use of AI "as a primary or determinative factor in decisions affecting resident access to City services, code enforcement actions, hiring or promotion decisions, or public safety functions without explicit policy authorization from the City Manager and notice to Council and the community via public information item."

In addition, any platform procured by the City must "include contractual guarantees that resident and employee data will not be used to train vendor AI models, and shall provide audit log capabilities accessible to City administrators."