I’ve just tried the new AI assistant that Rome launched. It’s pretty good. I just asked when the Pantheon opens tomorrow and got the right answer plus some other information, but not too much. I then asked about the Pantheon’s construction and got an exhaustive and quite well formulated answer very quickly. Amazing.

However, once I asked some more polemical questions it (she?) was less willing to engage in conversation. “Why are there so many cars parked in pedestrian zones?” and the answer was basically they are probably there due to special regulations. I wonder if Julia will learn and eventually tell the truth: that in Rome rules are ignored and cars can do whatever they want? AI learns from us so maybe we can feed it good information. Maybe we can tell it the truth about Rome, let it know that the official version is just a pleasant story of a city that works, while the reality on the streets is a dysfunctional mess.

My journey got even more interesting. I asked how I can report parking violations in pedestrian zones and was directed to the municipal police number but I know from experience that 9 times out of 10 that number rings with no answer. It also suggested visiting the website of Roma Mobilitá (servizionline.romamobilita.it). To my great surprise, the Rome Mobility “Service to the Public” web page offers services solely for car owners, nothing for pedestrians or transit riders.

In the end when I explained to Julia that none of these suggestions was useful it suggested I contact citizen activists, in particular Legambiente and Cittadinanzattiva. It’s interesting that when the administration fails to do its job the volunteer sector steps in. In my book Rome Works I refer to this as Participation SPQR-style. It is typified by volunteer cleanup groups like Retake stepping up to keep streets clean, social centers offering free courses for immigrants, and private citizens spending hours filing complaints about illegalities that the police themselves should be repressing as part of their jobs.

I invite my readers to check out Julia, put it to the test, and maybe it will learn that not everyone is concerned with cutting the queue at the Vatican or getting the best pizza in town; some people want the city to work better.

I asked Julia if it was possible to enter San Giovanni dei Fiorentini in a wheelchair. As I had just been there, and taken this sad picture, I knew the answer. Julia didn’t.