GenAI from the block: How AI and blockchain are helping Buenos Aires digitize

The city of Buenos Aires is advancing digital transformation related to technologies such as blockchain and generative artificial intelligence (genAI).

“The government began to digitize strongly in 2007 and, like any large organization, the evolution is not homogeneous in all areas,” Diego Fernández, the city's digital transformation secretary, said during an event hosted by AWS.

The city chose AWS to create its datalake to make data-based decisions and gain a more comprehensive view of operations.

To ensure interoperability in a standardized and secure way, the city adopted Estonia's open source solution, dubbed X-Road, which facilitates information exchange between government entities in a confidential, secure and auditable manner. In Buenos Aires, X-Road is working in 150 use cases, including civil registration documents and proof of registration with the tax agency.

“We want to end up with 500 use cases in 2024,” added Fernández. 

According to the city's website, X-Road has allowed the administration and citizens time savings of 1,460 days since implementation in 2022.

BLOCKCHAIN

The city's Quark ID blockchain-based protocol, developed with Extrimian and other actors, was released as open source in February.

“It's 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 different wallets accessing personal data and plausible information.

“We've seen everywhere how they hack you and begin to show credentials directly. Well, under this model, it's impossible because the credential is exclusively on my mobile device and is cryptographically encrypted against a digital identifier that's stored in the blockchain,” he said.

The development is based on an international standard, which would allow global interoperability.

Fernández said that the city was also working with provinces such as Tucumán that are interested in the system. Tests are also being carried out in Bogotá, and Nuevo León and Monterrey in Mexico, among other cities.

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Buenos Aires began testing genAI for its Boti chatbot, the biggest WhatsApp chatbot globally, according to owner Meta.

“We're in a testing process, with very small and very limited flows, to understand how we can use the generative artificial intelligence system for conversational interactions,” Fernández said.

Asked about data security, he said that “is an issue” to review if genAI is fully implemented. The city, in any case, has set a long deadline of two years for the implementation of genAI in Boti.

Currently, 90% of the contacts between the administration and citizens are digital and 30% come through Boti.

The first AI tests with ChatGPT are being carried out in the tourism and culture sectors. In an initial contact, the question is evaluated to determine whether it is of a malicious nature and will only go to the genAI if it passes that filter.

One concern is that the official AI chatbot will be used to ask for political opinions.

The test “was very effective in making the responses careful, but it also halted creativity,” Fernández told the event. Now, Buenos Aires is working with Madrid, which is operating the MadridGPT AI, to improve results. “In technology, collaborative work is key,” he added.

Fernández also said the work with AWS involves tools to make AI models.