Ethical AI in Local Government: Implications for Governance and Administrative Practice

The analysis undertaken in our study suggests that the ethical challenges associated with artificial intelligence in local government are a consequence of institutional capacity rather than normative uncertainty. Local authorities are not operating in an ethical vacuum: they are surrounded by a dense multi-level system of principles articulating expectations around transparency, accountability, fairness, privacy, explainability, human oversight, and other aspects related to AI development, deployment, and use. The persistent difficulty lies in translating these ethical commitments into stable administrative practices that can be enacted within local bureaucratic constraints.