How The Gen AI Lab could shape the future of Dublin
One of the objectives of a smart city is to leverage emerging technologies to make the city more efficient, sustainable and connected. A major part of this has been the recent launch of a Local Government Generative AI Lab (Gen AI Lab), an innovative partnership between Dublin City Council and the ADAPT Centre at Trinity College Dublin. In the latest episode of ADAPT Radio, Smart City Assistant Staff Officer Richie Shakespeare, alongside ADAPT Researcher and Gen AI project lead Khizer Ahmed Biyabani sat down to discuss how the lab is bridging the gap between academic research and practical, ethical public service tools.
Why an In-House Lab Matters
While Generative AI is widely available, Gen AI focuses on building in-house solutions to ensure local precision. Richie Shakespeare highlighted a critical “hallucination” during early testing where a public AI tool mistakenly pulled meeting minutes from New South Wales in Australia, instead of Dublin. By building an in-house model, the Gen AI labs can:
- Restrict Data Sources: Ensure the AI only analyses verified Dublin City Council archives
- Enhance Accuracy: Eliminate misinformation by testing tools in a safe, closed environment.
- Tailor System Instructions: Give specific commands that align with the council’s operational needs.
The Four Pillars of Innovation
In the podcast, Khizer explains that the lab currently operates under four core pillars, a systemic framework designed to scale AI responsibly across the city:
- Governance and Ethics: Creating a “safe space” for experimentation that aligns with public values and the EU AI Act.
- Education and Literacy: Upskilling staff on AI basics to ensure the organisation is prepared for new regulation by providing several online workshops.
- Proof of Concepts: developing tangible pilots, such as tools that will help staff analyse historical council meeting data.
- Enterprise scaling: Taking successful experiments and expanding them to the wider organisation.
Integrating AI With the Smart City Vision
The Gen AI Lab is a natural extension of Smart Dublin’s innovation culture. From the Smart Lifebuoy project to the development of Digital Twins for urban planning, we are constantly looking for ways to make Dublin even more connected and sustainable as a city. By applying AI to our streams of data, we are aiming to improve internal productivity by allowing our teams to spend less time on “wearisome” admin tasks and more time on solving the complex challenges facing our citizens.
Listen to the full episode: To hear the complete conversation about the future of AI in local government, check out ADAPT Radio on Soundcloud or on Spotify.