Chief watchdog Deborah Witzburg agreed she is requesting a trailblazing change, but only because “none of us is here to do our jobs the same way our predecessors did them,” she said. “No one should look out at the government accountability landscape in Chicago and in Illinois right now and think that the status-quo is good enough.” Witzburg also argued there is “nothing radical” about her proposed changes, which simply “bring Chicago into line with national standards and federal law.”
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.