In this commentary, we respond to a recent editorial letter by Professor Luciano Floridi entitled 'AI as a public service: Learning from Amsterdam and Helsinki'. Here, Floridi considers the positive impact of these municipal AI registers, which collect a limited number of algorithmic systems used by the city of Amsterdam and Helsinki. There are a number of assumptions about AI registers as a governance model for automated systems that we seek to question. Starting with recent attempts to normalize AI by decontextualizing and depoliticizing it, which is a fraught political project that encourages what we call 'ethics theater' given the proven dangers of using these systems in the context of the digital welfare state. We agree with Floridi that much can be learned from these registers about the role of AI systems in municipal city management. Yet, the lessons we draw, on the basis of our extensive ethnographic engagement with digital well-fare states are distinctly less optimistic.

Transparency, explainability, and trust are big and pressing topics in AI/ML today. Nobody wants to find themselves at the receiving end of a black box system that makes consequential decisions (e.g., about jobs, healthcare, citizenship, etc.), especially if those decisions are unfair, biased, or just plainly not in our favor. And most organizations agree that consumer trust and confidence that AI is being used ethically and transparently are keys to unlocking its true potential. And while there are literally hundreds of documents describing and prescribing AI principles, frameworks, and other good things, there haven't been any practical tools that could help with implementing transparency. On September 28, 2020, the Cities of Helsinki and Amsterdam jointly announced the launch of their public AI registers.

Amsterdam and Helsinki became the first two cities in the world to launch AI-based registers that log algorithms used in municipalities. Finnish developer Saidot created the registers used by both cities. The cities announced this development at the New Generation Internet Policy Summit organized by the European Commission. According to the Government AI Readiness Index 2020, Netherlands and Finland are the most prepared to adapt AI into government services. Currently, the AI registers in the two cities contain only a handful of applications.

Amsterdam and Helsinki today became the first cities in the world to launch open AI registers that track how algorithms are being used in the municipalities. In a press release, the cities said the registers would help ensure that the AI used in public services operates on the same principles of responsibility, transparency, and security as other local government activities. "Algorithms play an increasingly important role in our lives," said Touria Meliani, Deputy Mayor of Amsterdam. "Together with the city of Helsinki, we are on a mission to create as much understanding about algorithms as possible and be transparent about the way we -- as cities -- use them. Today we take another important step with the launch of these algorithm registers."