Artificial intelligence can help government agencies deliver better results, but there are underlying risks and ethical issues with its implementation that need to be resolved before AI becomes part of the fabric of government.

Based on insights from an expert roundtable led by the IBM Center for The Business of Government and the Partnership for Public Service, agencies will need to address multiple risks and ethical imperatives in order to realize the opportunity that AI technology brings. These include:

City court officials in Austin used to spend a lot of time answering rote questions related to parking tickets, court dates and other issues.

Then about two years ago, the city began using a chatbot to field these requests. The move made life easier not only for workers in the court system, but also residents.

“They had a challenge with individuals coming down, asking questions about paying tickets,” explained Austin CIO Stephen Elkins during a panel discussion last week at the Smart Cities Connect Conference in Denver.

Amazon has made its entry into the surveillance business with a facial recognition system, Rekognition. The product is geared towards law enforcement use, and has already been used in select police departments around the country.

The AI-based program can track, identify and analyze people in real-time. It is powerful enough to identify up to 100 people in a single image and scan the information quickly against databases.