Show notes
Episode Notes
Local officials have information to work through and residents to keep informed. Evan Meyer joins Cody to discuss where AI might help, from understanding a complicated bill to preparing a community newsletter, and what people still need to understand before putting their name on the result.
Evan describes MyGovTools' approach to AI government newsletters, including gathering community information, preparing a weekly digest and adding human review and personal input. We discuss government communication with AI, disclosure, and why human oversight of AI has to involve more than accepting the output.
The conversation also moves through property values and local policy, AI music, creative work, free will and what future technology could make possible. This is an exploratory interview about AI in local government and beyond, not a step-by-step tutorial or independent test of MyGovTools.
TOPICS
- Reading beyond a bill's headline and checking the underlying information.
- Evan's view of property values, relationships and public trust.
- MyGovTools and AI-assisted newsletters for local officials.
- Disclosure, human review and responsibility for public messages.
- AI music, creative agency and the debate over machine intelligence.
- Using AI to ask questions and learn, without surrendering judgment.
ABOUT EVAN
Evan Meyer is a civic-tech entrepreneur whose projects include MyGovTools, Beautify Earth and RideAmigos. He hosts Meyerside Chats and draws on his experience as a California Senate district director in this conversation.
Evan Meyer: https://evanmeyer.io
MyGovTools: https://mygovtools.org
Meyerside Chats: https://www.evanmeyer.io/podcast
Beautify Earth: https://beautifyearth.com
RideAmigos / CommuteHub: https://rideamigos.com
CONTEXT AND SOURCES
Product benefits and forecasts are the speakers' views, not independently measured outcomes. Political and legal discussion is commentary, not legal advice. Check AI-generated explanations against the original documents.
The broad government-trust claim is not a verified global ranking. Gallup's 2023 U.S. survey distinguishes local government from Congress:
https://news.gallup.com/poll/512651/americans-trust-local-government-congress-least.aspx
The episode's broad one-in-ten childbirth claim is not established here. A CDC historical report gives six to nine maternal deaths from pregnancy-related complications per 1,000 live births in the early-20th-century United States, a specified population and measure:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10563522/
The unidentified water-powered-scooter anecdote was not verified. Electrolysis requires electricity to split water into hydrogen and oxygen; water is not a fuel by itself:
https://www.energy.gov/eere/fuelcells/hydrogen-production-electrolysis
Other numerical anecdotes, including a Shanghai vehicle percentage and translation latency, were not independently verified. Future-technology predictions are speculation, not established results.
PROMOTIONS AND DISCLOSURES
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