Smart cities are fundamentally built on the rapidly evolving opportunities offered by digital transformation over the last three decades. At least three stages of such digital transformation can be identified in the context of smart cities. The first stage of electronic government enabled the transformation of cities from paper based back office processes to electronic based processes, promising efficiencies in back office operations. The second stage of smart government enabled online, interactive processes of public service operations with round the clock (24/7), location based service delivery. The emerging third stage of algorithmic governance with AI promises to automate smart city operations, taking away the need for human intervention in routine operational activities. As we move quickly toward algorithmic governance, there is more scope for efficiency, but reduces the scope for human discretion. This paper explores the emerging tension between administrative discretion and algorithmic governance. We circumscribe the areas where algorithmic governance may not need to contend with administrative discretion (e.g. routine operations, where automation provides efficiency without human input) and the areas where such algorithmic governance could be in tension with discretion (e.g. value based decision making, where automation would bias systematically toward certain value systems).

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Publica Administration,SmartCities,Discretion,algorithmics,algorithmic Governance,Digital Governance