Request for Comments - Advancing Governance, Innovation, and Risk Management for Agency Use of Artificial Intelligence - City of San José Information Technology Department - December 5, 2023

Sep 19, 2026

Comments submitted by the City of San José Information Technology Department in response to a request for comments on an OMB draft memorandum titled “Advancing Governance, Innovation, and Risk Management for Agency Use of Artificial Intelligence.” The submission highlights lessons learned from the City’s AI governance evolution, including the roles needed for leadership, the value of leveraging existing privacy governance bodies, and the importance of standardized vendor accountability via “nutrition facts.” It also addresses generative AI use, minimum implementation practices, and the risks agencies face when timelines outpace AI maturity.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryLetters

FormatPDF

Pages22

Reading Time8 min

AccessFree to download

Summary of Comments

Chief AI Officer (CAIO)

Leveraging Existing Governing Bodies

Vendor Accountability

Generative AI

Minimum Practices

Background

City of San José AI Governance Structure

AI Review Framework and Risk Assessment

Required Vendor and Assessment Materials

Algorithm Review, Publishing, and High-Risk Outreach

Request for Comments: Advancing Governance, Innovation, and Risk Management for Agency Use of Artificial Intelligence Draft Memorandum Submitted by The City of San José Information Technology Department December 5, 2023 The City of San José Information Technology Department appreciates the opportunity to submit comments in response to the request for comment on the proposed draft memorandum titled“Advancing Governance, Innovation, and Risk Management for Agency Use of Artificial Intelligence” by the Office of Management and Budget (the OMB Memo) . In late 2022, the Digital Privacy Office (DPO) began the initial governance of AI systems as a natural extension of governing data policies and data processing. Starting with procurement reviews, the City’s AI governance has evolved into Generative AI initiatives, and impact assessments. Recently, San José began a coalition of over 100 state and local agencies to build a standardized approach to AI governance, policy, and vendor accountability. We hope to connect the Coalition’s work with the efforts at OMB and the broader Federal government. Summary of Comments We celebrate the OMB memo as a vital step towards comprehensive AI policy for U.S. public agencies. • Chief AI Officer (CAIO): Our experience at San José has demonstrated the need for a designated lead on AI policy and governance. The CAIO needs to lead across AI governance, procurement, and technical projects. This ensures all AI projects follow responsible AI governance and fosters mutual maturity between policy and practical implementation of technology. The City’s CAIO function is currently served by technical and project management leads with the Digital Privacy Officer, but may vary based on where technology policies are managed in an agency. • Leveraging existing governing bodies: The City has leveraged its Digital Privacy Officer and existing privacy and data governing bodies to handle AI governance. The City found that stakeholders for both Privacy and AI overlapped considerably, and we recommend exploring if the same is true at your agencies to minimize additional overhead. • Vendor accountability: When implementing our impact assessment framework at the City of San José, we experienced varying levels of cooperation across vendors in obtaining information around the “nutrition facts” of their AI systems. Larger vendors were often unresponsive or unwilling to provide us information about the AI system. Having a standardized “nutrition facts”requirement for all AI systems enforced at the federal level would solve this problem. • Generative AI: Agencies should leverage generative AI tools for creating initial drafts of content while establishing safeguards to ensure responsible use. To promote the responsible use of generative AI tools, the City of San José and many others have released Generative AI Guidelines to help City employees leverage the benefits of generative AI tools while understanding and mitigating its risks. • Minimum practices: The minimum practices outlined in the memo may be too aggressive for agencies to implement by the desired timeline. Agencies with a lower AI maturity may struggle to successfully implement all minimum requirements by the deadline. Our detailed comments follow the ‘Background’ section. Background The City of San José is leveraging the benefits of AI to improve the delivery of services to residents. Asthe City increasingly uses AI tools, it is more important than ever to ensure that those AI systems are effective and trustworthy. The City of San José’s AI governance activities are performed by the Information Technology Department and its Digital Privacy Officer (DPO) . 1 The DPO was established in October 2021 following the Council’s ratification of the City’s Digital Privacy Policy in late 2020, developed to safeguard the public’s trust in the City’s use of new and emerging technologies and to protect residents’ digital privacy rights. 2 In late

FAQs

Who submitted the comments and what prompted them?

The City of San José Information Technology Department submitted comments in response to a request for comments on an OMB proposed draft memorandum about agency use of artificial intelligence.

What does the City say about appointing a Chief AI Officer (CAIO)?

The City argues that a designated lead is needed to coordinate AI policy and governance across governance, procurement, and technical projects to ensure responsible implementation.

How does the City address vendor accountability for AI systems?

The City describes difficulties obtaining necessary information from vendors and recommends a standardized federal requirement for “nutrition facts” information for all AI systems.

Sep 19, 2026

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