AUSTIN (KXAN) — It was a call that began with what seemed like a usual introduction from a speaker, during the public comment portion of Austin City Council’s Nov. 7 meeting.
“Hello esteemed City Council, my name is Robin Land, and I’m a proud Christian Zionist,” the caller said. “I want to congratulate everyone here on the election of President Trump, a true friend of Israel.”
As remarks were shared, it seemingly became more evident to councilmembers, that this wasn’t a typical call, or even a real person on the other end. The call was AI-generated, according to Mayor Kirk Watson’s public post on the City of Austin Council Message board.
“And then what if Israel has to become a democracy where the Arabs have equal rights? Just imagine if they were able to vote,” the AI-generated caller said.
Over three minutes of harmful remarks were shared by the AI voice, leading Watson to direct an investigation.
Watson told council members, “We discussed the need to immediately get to the bottom of how this happened, what we can do to prevent it in the future and how we create security. Of course, our priority is protecting the ability of our public to communicate with us and to prevent misuse and abuse of the system. I’ve also included the City Manager and Deputy City Manager in this discussion.”
Community member and data analyst, Meme Styles sent an email to councilmembers before Watson’s posted message, asking for what happened to be taken seriously.
“…called in the session with racist and harmful content,” Styles wrote in her email. “This incident, potentially AI-generated, raises pressing questions about the role of artificial intelligence in compromising the integrity and security of the City of Austin’s public forum,” Styles wrote in her email.
It’s unclear whether the AI-generated call is connected to a real person. Styles, being a data analyst, put the transcript from the City Council meeting through grammarly—an AI writing assistant—to begin looking into where the call originated, and its possible impacts.
“My first line of action was to look at the potential risks of what it said,” Styles said. “Concerns about privacy and accountability and security….Technological harm is a threat…How do we ensure freedom of speech, but also ensure the protection of people, right, that are being that may be impacted by what is said or generated?”
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Styles said she’s been in contact with councilmembers as they work to address what happened.
Dr. Samantha Shorey, an AI expert with University of Pittsburgh said that work could require more due diligence from staff.
“We need to be doing quality assurance around the people that are registering to speak in our public forums,” Shorey said. “And it’s not going to be the it requires human laborr…When we think about what can be done, pushing toward transparency is something that’s really important for our use of AI in the public sphere.”
NewsNation affiliate KXAN has reached out to the City of Austin for an update on its efforts.
