Start-ups at Michigan Central are collecting data in Detroit using aerial drones, air monitors, traffic and walking sensors, and video.
A new communication initiative launched in November to increase transparency around what the hub is doing with the data.
Michigan Central adopted the “Digital Trust for Places & Routines” standard, created in 2019 by Google’s Sidewalk Labs and now led by Helpful Places to increase trust around the use of technology in public spaces. Other cities operating under the standard, like Boston, Miami and Washington, D.C., with some reporting success. Hexagonal signs and stickers with QR codes around Corktown take users to an online portal with a dropdown menu with information on the Michigan Central technology pilots, partners involved, and how the data will be used. The portal also prompts users to rate how each project makes them feel and whether the information is helpful and easy to understand.
The transparency effort comes during a time of technology distrust in the greater Detroit community.
In 2021, Detroit’s City Council adopted the Community Input Over Government Surveillance ordinance to strengthen oversight amid a boom of facial recognition technology, license plate readers, fingerprinting data, and more. But community and council members say there are too many weaknesses in the law, which does not apply to technologies already in use before the ordinance went into effect, and have been meeting to discuss potential reforms. There have been at least three wrongful arrests by the Detroit Police Department based on false facial recognition matches, prompting the ACLU of Michigan to call on the Detroit Police Department to stop using the technology. Amendments to the ordinance are expected in 2024.
Michigan Central’s launch of Digital Trust for Places & Routines (DTPR) begins with the six technology pilots the hub currently hosts: analyzing traffic to improve pedestrian safety, wireless electric vehicle charging, robots to help pedestrians cross streets safely, air quality monitors, electric RV rental, and safer paths at night.
“Where we can do testing in the public streets, and with the public, it becomes really important for people to know what we’re doing,” said Carolina Pluszczynski, head of Innovation Services and chief operating at Michigan Central, noting that the pilots aren’t introducing any new technology.
James Rampton, an automotive user experience lecturer at the University of Michigan’s School of Information and former designer for General Motors, said the use of an outside standard for how its technology is used gives Michigan Central credibility.
“It’s crucial that they have a trusted source that has a program in place to convey that information that’s not biased by a certain company,” he said. “They’re being a part of this broader community about information transparency.”
Rampton said he’s hopeful the standard will be used by more cities. In Detroit, a similar standard could be adopted by the Q-Line or Department of Transportation buses, he said.
Detroit public transit representatives did not immediately comment on whether they would adopt the standard or what data transparency practices they might be using.
“For things that relate to different infrastructure, like testing facilities or different things that are available to the public, it’s fantastic because it’s something where you’re being fully transparent in a very credible way about how the information is being used and what it’s actually doing,” he said.
Tawana Petty, a Detroit activist focused on data privacy and consent, said Michigan Central’s transparency is a positive step forward.
“However, ideally the public would have the ability to provide feedback on new technologies before they are procured, designed, developed and deployed in our communities. When that is not the case, it becomes transparency without consent, which is coercive,” she told BridgeDetroit.
Petty said she hopes Michigan Central will consider also adopting the Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights that came out of the White House’s Office of Science and Technology Policy last year, which aims to protect the American public in the age of artificial intelligence.
“If the outcomes of community feedback do not translate to a right of refusal or the option to seek out human alternatives to digital technologies and biometric surveillance, then we have to interrogate whether seeking community feedback is merely window dressing,” Petty said.
Pluszczynski said Michigan Central doesn’t have the power to enforce the regulations that the AI Bill of Rights calls for.
“However, our core values and mission are aligned with many of the principles laid out in the AI Bill of Rights. We developed DTPR to ensure appropriate communication and transparency with Detroiters about the innovations being developed at Michigan Central,” she said.
Corktown resident Danielle Manley attended a November public meeting held by Michigan Central regarding DTPR.
“I know that I’m being tracked,” she told BridgeDetroit. “If I can be a data point that helps technology create better lives for people I’m happy with that. I think it’s foolish to assume that you’re going to escape that at this point,” she said.
Manley said DTPR is one component of many that will be necessary to ensure transparency for Corktown residents.
“There is a digital divide and a lot of residents in Corktown are legacy, they are much older than I am, and feel differently. So if the only interface is going to be via digital, then that’s probably not enough,” said Manley, 45.
Pluszczynski said Michigan Central’s decision to use DTPR came as a result of community feedback, including several meetings like the one held in November.
“We’ve had several conversations with the community since the beginning, and they’ve been part of the conversation,” she said. “Some of the solutions that we’re deploying are in direct response to their needs.”
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to reflect the proper title for Carolina Pluszczynski and clarify that start-ups at Michigan Central are collecting data.