MONROE — The City of Monroe Common Council has approved restrictions on the use of artificial intelligence running on municipal technology networks; and during work on city business.

The measure was approved at the October 5 council meeting with no opposition, and Monroe Mayor Tom Miller emphasized that the main driver for the new policy was a desire to maintain network security and to be consistent with rules around employee work.

“We just wanted to go over some rules and how AI fits into the security procedures,” and existing safeguards, he said. “It was as simple as that, routine, and there wasn’t too much discussion.”

The policy covers all types of artificial intelligence applications now stampeding the tech and business markets, including the large-language model giants such as ChatGPT, Claude and Google’s Gemini.

“While we remain committed to adopting new technologies to aid our mission, when possible, we also understand the risks and limitations of generative AI chatbots and want to ensure responsible use,” the policy states. “Our goal is to balance our organization’s obligation to protect employees, clients, suppliers, customers, and the organization from harm against our organization’s mission to provide our community with highly efficient and effective resources.”

Miller said that the limited interaction the city has with AI is within its Microsoft network running the MS Co-Pilot tool that comes with many of the software firm’s business and government packages. Thus, Co-Pilot is now the official AI tool for city use.

Co-Pilot data typically stays inside an organization’s Microsoft client; and is encrypted both in transit and at rest, according to experts and the company’s literature.

What’s more Co-Pilot doesn’t use interactions to train any other AI models.

“We are more comfortable with what we’re doing in our computers, just with that,” said Miller.

The policy further clarifies what it is meant to regulate within the city’s computer system.

“While AI can be used to perform a variety of functions, this policy addresses only work-related use of web-based interface to ask or “prompt” the chatbot in a conversational manner to find answers to questions or to create or edit written content,” said the ordinance.

The policy was read to the council by City Attorney Dan Bartholf. Responding to a question at the meeting, City Administrator Brittney Rindy clarified that employees would first have to seek permission to use any other chat client from the city’s Technology Director.