Open records laws have pushed cities to publish more data than ever. By the letter of most transparency laws, the disclosure requirement is met the moment a file is posted. By any practical measure of understanding, it usually isn't.
The compliance bar for transparency and the practical bar for understanding are not the same bar.
AI-based reconciliation — matching inconsistent schemas, connecting entities across datasets — has gone from research-lab territory to something that can run in production, city by city.
The opportunity isn't to publish more data. It's to build the layer that sits on top of what's already public and makes it legible.