City drops talks of AI use for meeting minutes

By Grace Lovins

Talks of potentially using artificial intelligence (AI) by the city of Birmingham to generate board and commission meeting minutes were dropped during the Monday, December 1, city commission meeting, after commissioner Brad Host’s attempt to bring the item forward as a formal agenda item failed to garner support.

Host originally brought the matter up at a previous meeting during the allotted time for commissioners to bring items forward for further discussion. He stated that he felt the way the minutes are currently written is “very bad” and subjective, and he believes meeting minutes generated by AI would be more comprehensive.

During Monday night’s meeting, city manager Jana Ecker gave a brief report on the topic, saying that the standard best practice is to not use AI for generating minutes. According to Ecker, minutes produced by generative AI do not meet the standards of Robert’s Rules of Order and the Open Meetings Act, meaning a city employee would still need to read through the minutes to verify accuracy and make corrections.

Both commissioner Therese Longe and city attorney Mary Kucharek refuted Host’s claim that the city’s minutes are “very bad.” Longe and Kucharek explained that Robert’s Rules of Order explicitly states that meeting minutes are not meant to be transcripts, but instead record actions that were taken.

Longe further said she would be opposed to any effort to make the minutes more like a transcript of the meetings as well as any effort to use AI to generate minutes. Host attempted to motion for the commission to vote for bringing the item to a meeting as a formal agenda item, but failed to receive a second to his motion.