City of Perth knocks back staff plea to use AI for recording council meetings amid rising workload

A request for City of Perth employees to be able to use artificial intelligence to keep up with their workload due to staff reductions has been rejected.

Staff recently began using Microsoft Copilot to help record select member engagement sessions and budget workshops.

They wanted to expand its use to record city oversight, risk and development, CEO performance reviews, and policy, regulatory and governance committee meetings.

A report to the council said this would help staff cope with current resource constraints as preparing accurate minutes can require “significant effort”.

But the council voted 4-5 against the idea at its April 29 meeting, citing accuracy concerns and questions about who can access the records.

The proposal was first introduced in March but was delayed until last month after Deputy Mayor David Goncalves wanted elected members to be able to access confidential copies of their audio recordings or transcripts “for administrative or verification purposes” and city records of recordings, transcripts and notes, subject to confidentiality rules.

The staff report at the April 29 meeting stated that the recordings and transcripts were considered “study materials” and that councilors were not automatically entitled to them under the Local Government Act.

“If a council decision conflicts with the Act (or any written law), the written law shall prevail and to the extent of the inconsistency the decision is invalid,” he said.

“This means that the administration cannot disclose information that is inconsistent with what is permitted by the Act, even if the council adopts a position or policy to disclose it.”

This did not deter Cr Goncalves, who told the meeting that people should be able to check records at all times.

He acknowledged that AI can support efficiency but cannot replace governance.

“This does not replace the person taking the minutes and it does not replace the responsibility we place on our management and, most importantly, it should never replace our ability to verify what happened,” Cr Goncalves said.

“AI can hallucinate, as humans undoubtedly experience. It can misattribute. It can hear the wrong person say something and attribute it to another. It can lose context. It can summarize incorrectly.”

“These risks can be managed, but only with human oversight.”

Governance and policy manager Charlie Clark said he would be forced to make a freedom of information request if legislation did not allow the council to provide employment documents.

Cr Viktor Ko said he was extremely cautious about the use of AI and wanted to know who would be responsible if the minutes recorded by the AI ​​were found to be inaccurate.

Cr Goncalves’ bid was rejected 2-7.

Lord Mayor Bruce Reynolds said he wanted the minutes to be kept manually.

“While the aim of making minute-taking easier is understood, minutes have been recorded by this council in a consistent and traditional manner for many years without any problems,” he said.

“I suggest we continue with the status quo. We can move on to more important issues within the city without being disrupted.”

“Management stated that they were happy to do this manually due to the resulting grays.”

Cr Raj Doshi said using AI would support city staff, while Cr Catherine Lezer said it was a “common sense change” that would make things simpler and more transparent.

Cr Goncalves said the council could do this “in the traditional way” and keep a report.

It appeared earlier this year Job offers in the city were being turned down.