Advancing Transparency and Understandability of Urban AI through Interactive Public Displays: Advancing Understandability and Transparency of Urban AI

Abstract

AI technologies are increasingly integrated into urban environments, supporting functions such as transportation, safety, and community wellbeing. Despite their potential to enhance citizen well-being, these systems often operate invisibly, making it difficult for citizens to understand them, raising concerns of privacy and trust. While initiatives like AI registers aim to improve urban AI transparency, they lack contextual interaction and do little to support everyday literacy. This study investigates how interactive public displays in urban contexts can enhance transparency and understandability of AI for citizens. Through an exploratory research approach, we developed a prototype informed by literature and design heuristics and evaluated it with ten urban citizens. Findings reveal that interactive public displays could advance urban AI literacy by offering situated transparency, layered explanations, and multimodal interactivity. The findings lead to initial design considerations for designing interactive public displays for AI literacy.