The City of Buenos Aires is promoting its digital transformation linked to technologies such as blockchain and generative artificial intelligence (genAI).
“The government started digitalization strongly in 2007, but like any large organization, the evolution has not been uniform in all areas,” Diego Fernández, the city's secretary of digital transformation, said at an event hosted by AWS.
The city chose AWS to create a data lake to make data-driven decisions and gain a more comprehensive view of its operations.
To ensure interoperability in a standardized and secure way, the city adopted X-Road, an Estonian open source solution that facilitates the exchange of information between government agencies while maintaining confidentiality, security, and auditability. In Buenos Aires, X-Road works for 150 use cases, including residence registration documents and proof of registration with the tax office.
“We want to reach 500 use cases by 2024,” Fernandez added.
According to the city's website, since its introduction in 2022, X-Road has saved the government and citizens 1,460 days of time.
Blockchain
The city's Quark ID blockchain-based protocol was developed in collaboration with Extrimian and other stakeholders and released as open source in February.
“It is a digital security platform or framework that allows us to regain control of our identity,” Fernández told BNamericas.
He added that digital identity is currently only “pseudo-digitized,” with various wallets simply having access to personal data and trusted information.
“You see it everywhere where people get hacked and they can show you your credentials directly. With this model, that's not possible because the credentials only reside on the mobile device and are encrypted with digital identifiers that are stored on the blockchain,” he said.
This development will be based on international standards, enabling global interoperability.
Fernández said the city is also working with states interested in the system, such as Tucumán. Tests are also taking place in Bogotá, the Mexican state of Nuevo Leon and Monterrey.
artificial intelligence
Buenos Aires has begun testing genAI for its Boti chatbot, the world's largest WhatsApp chatbot, according to owner Meta.
“We're currently in the process of testing on a very small, limited flow to understand how generative artificial intelligence systems can be used in conversational interactions,” Fernandez said.
When asked about data security, he said, “We need to look at whether genAI is fully implemented or not.” In any case, the city has set a long deadline of two years for the implementation of genAI in the bothy.
Currently, 90% of communication between the administration and the public is done digitally and 30% is done through Boti.
The first AI tests with ChatGPT are being carried out in the tourism and culture sector. At the first contact, the question is assessed for maliciousness and only if it passes the filter is it sent to genAI.
The concern is that the official AI chatbot will be used to ask for political opinions.
The test was “very effective in forcing people to be cautious in their answers, but it also stifled creativity,” Fernández said at the event. Now Buenos Aires is working with Madrid, which runs Madrid GPT AI, to improve the results. “In technology, collaboration is key,” Fernández added.
Fernandez also said the work with AWS will include tools for creating AI models.
