Governments must be prepared to reject or discontinue Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems that threaten public interest, undermine human rights or introduce unacceptable risks, according to new guidelines issued by the United Nations for the deployment of AI in cities.
The guidelines, developed by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and the UN Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat), establish four principles for city authorities adopting AI in public services, including maintaining meaningful human control over decisions, assessing potential harm and prioritising actual urban challenges over technology adoption.
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The new United for Smart Sustainable Cities (U4SSC) Toolbox for People-Centred Smart Cities in the AI Era comes as municipal governments increasingly deploy AI-powered systems to manage public services, respond to residents’ complaints, identify infrastructure problems and support administrative decisions.
While these applications promise faster and more responsive services, the UN warned that poorly governed systems could introduce bias, compromise privacy, undermine human rights and create accountability gaps when automated decisions affect residents.
A central message of the toolbox is that adopting AI should not automatically be considered progress. City authorities must first establish the problem they intend to solve, determine who stands to benefit or suffer from the technology and assess whether its deployment is justified.
The framework also requires public decisions influenced by AI to remain under meaningful human control, rather than allowing algorithms to become the final authority in matters affecting residents.
It further recommends stronger safeguards for applications with potentially greater consequences, placing greater responsibility on governments to assess risks before deploying systems in sensitive areas of public administration.
The fourth principle recognises that abandoning an AI application can be a responsible outcome where its risks outweigh its benefits or where adequate safeguards cannot be guaranteed.
This places the burden on city authorities to demonstrate that AI applications serve public needs, rather than treating technological adoption as an end in itself.
The toolbox provides practical guidance throughout the lifecycle of AI projects, asking city officials to identify the problem being addressed, assess who could be affected, establish monitoring arrangements, determine accountability and decide when an application should be modified or discontinued.
It draws on real-world smart-city experiences from Helsinki, Finland, and eThekwini, South Africa, to demonstrate how the principles can inform decisions across different urban environments.
Doreen Bogdan-Martin, ITU secretary-general, said the resource would help city officials translate international standards and responsible AI principles into practical guidance for improving public services and building public trust.
Anacláudia Rossbach, UN-Habitat executive director, said AI and digital innovation must respond to community needs, particularly those of residents in informal settlements and underserved areas.
She identified gaps in data, human rights protections and meaningful participation by residents and civil society as important considerations in shaping urban technology decisions.
The guidelines have implications for developing economies, where governments are increasingly looking towards digital platforms, data infrastructure and AI to address urban challenges, but face uneven access to reliable data, infrastructure and digital skills.
For such cities, deploying AI without adequate oversight could reproduce existing inequalities in public service delivery, particularly where communities are poorly represented in the data used to train or operate automated systems.
The UN initiative also highlights the need for governments to establish clear accountability structures before integrating AI into public infrastructure and administrative processes.
The launch coincides with the 10th anniversary of United for Smart Sustainable Cities, a global initiative coordinated by ITU, UN-Habitat and the UN Economic Commission for Europe, with support from 19 other UN agencies and programmes.
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Alongside the AI toolbox, the initiative released publications covering urban AI governance, measurement of people-centred digital transformation, security for digital public infrastructure, city data platforms, anticipatory governance and data-enabled destination management.
Established in 2016, U4SSC provides tools, methodologies and performance indicators to help cities accelerate sustainable digital transformation and advance the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
The new publications are intended to provide city and national authorities with a common framework for using AI and data to build more inclusive, resilient and responsive urban environments.
Royal Ibeh is a senior journalist with years of experience reporting on Nigeria’s technology and health sectors. She currently covers the Technology and Health beats for BusinessDay newspaper, where she writes in-depth stories on digital innovation, telecom infrastructure, healthcare systems, and public health policies.
