Pedro Martinez, appointed by Mayor Lori Lightfoot in September 2021 to lead the Chicago Public Schools, has never answered questions during a City Council meeting. Traditionally, the City Council has been loath to play an oversight role — even as city residents pay hundreds of millions of dollars from their taxes to run agencies like the school district and the Chicago Transit Authority.
A largely unasked question is becoming glaring: Is Illinois doing all it should to use artificial intelligence to make government cost less and work better? So far, the evidence says no.