Topics covered
Subject ▸ local government
AI Use in U.S. Local Government Communications: Prevalence and Reach on Social Media
Generative AI has made polished social-media copy nearly free to produce, and a plausible worry is that cash-strapped local governments adopting it will pay for the savings with reach: residents may read machine-drafted posts as less authentic and engage with them less. We test that worry directly, within account, across 767,131 Facebook posts from roughly 4,900 U.S. city and county governments in all 50 states and DC. After we control for length, theme, writing register, and formality, posts that read as more machine-like draw 2–3% fewer likes and comments per standard deviation of machine-likeness, and no reliably different share count.Deliberation About AI in Local Government
This project examines how local governments deliberate about adopting artificial intelligence, and what those deliberations reveal about public accountability for algorithmic decision-making.