1y ago

New York taxpayers are paying for spicy autocomplete to tell landlords they can discriminate

NYC’s AI Chatbot Tells Businesses to Break the Law – The Markup

In October, New York City announced a plan to harness the power of artificial intelligence to improve the business of government. The announcement included a surprising centerpiece: an AI-powered chatbot that would provide New Yorkers with information on starting and operating a business in the city.
The problem, however, is that the city’s chatbot is telling businesses to break the law.

9 comments

This is some of the most corporate-brained reasoning I've ever seen. To recap:
NYC elects a cop as mayor
Cop-mayor decrees that NYC will be great again, because of businesses
Cops and other oinkers get extra cash even though they aren't business
Commercial real estate is still cratering and cops can't find anybody to stop/frisk/arrest/blame for it
Folks over in New Jersey are giggling at the cop-mayor, something must be done
NYC invites folks to become small-business owners, landlords, realtors, etc.
Cop-mayor doesn't understand how to fund it (whaddaya mean, I can't hire cops to give accounting advice!?)
Cop-mayor's CTO (yes, the city has corporate officers) suggests a fancy chatbot instead of hiring people
It's a fucking pattern, ain't it.
The number of people who trust these LLMs is too damn high.
Ars' example gave me some hope
Nice, I wonder if this thing can help fill out my restaurant/tissue bank paperwork now.
- Finally, I can start a lawsuit against that escape room for not allowing me and my emotional support crowbar in.
- How big of a boulder can you have as a met rock?
  
  A large boulder the size of a small boulder.
"Spicy autocomplete" is a great way of describing an LLM

9 comments