AccessMI Civic Data and AI AI Collective Detroit

National tools stop at the county line. People live below it. This is a primer on open data in the United States: the law and the legacy behind it, why it matters at the local level, and why so much of it still stops at the county line. It closes with a live look at AccessMI, a civic-intelligence platform for all 83 Michigan counties where every figure is labeled VERIFIED, MODELED, or PROJECTED and traced back to a primary source. It also covers how AI changes who gets to ask public data a question, and the risk that comes with it: a confidently wrong answer is worse than no answer. CHAPTERS 0:00 Cold open and welcome 0:41 Open data: the law, the legacy, the build 2:41 Sixty years of federal open-government law 4:41 The Sunlight Foundation and the playbook that outlived it 6:41 Michigan: strong statutes, glaring carve-outs 9:11 Why open data matters, and how communities use it 11:41 Why some data isn't open, and how to open it 15:11 The gap: national tools stop at the county line 17:41 In Michigan, averages hide the crisis 19:11 How AI changes who can ask 22:41 The hard part: confidently wrong answers 25:11 AccessMI: local public data, made clear 29:11 Live demo: AccessMI by ZIP code 37:41 OurIntel: the same engine at national scope 39:41 The community, the credits, and how it's built 45:56 How to make this better and get involved 49:41 Q&A and closing LINKS AccessMI (Michigan): https://accessmi.org OurIntel (national): https://ourintel.org AI Collective Detroit: https://www.aicollective.com/chapters/detroit Speaker: Saeb A. Ahsan, a civic-tech builder. AccessMI is an independent project and is not affiliated with any government agency or health system. Captions available. Recorded for AI Collective Detroit. Best viewed full screen. The live demo begins around 29:11.