NYC Mayor defends AI chatbot accused of giving bad advice

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In response to reports indicating that MyCity may be providing wrong, incorrect, and misleading information, NYC Mayor Eric Adams has come out to defend it. For those unaware, the New York government recently introduced the MyCity AI chatbot to assist business owners with their queries.

NYC Mayor defends controversial AI Chatbot amid accusations of misleading guidance

Its aim is to help business owners who require non-stop access to information and guidance. Nevertheless, an investigation by The Markup, with support from Documented and The City local newsrooms found several instances where it gave incorrect legal advice.

For example, the bot wrongly claimed that landlords could discriminate against tenants on grounds of income and that employers can pocket some of their service provider’s tips; both practices are illegal in New York City.

Like other AI models driven by Microsoft’s Azure AI large language models, MyCity is prone to giving inaccurate or misleading pieces of information. Accordingly, Mayor Adams admitted wrongs about this tool by saying “It’s off in certain areas,” but he defended its general aim.

He said that by nature, this kind of technology has to prove itself in real-life settings to highlight problems and solutions thereof. However, subsequent investigations revealed that the attempts failed since it was still feeding false claims such as ‘businesses no longer taking cash payments’ which contradicts NY law.

MyCity AI could prove inefficient requiring more dialogues with lawyers

Andrew Rigie who serves as a director at the NYC Hospitality Alliance praised the city’s attempt at using AI-powered technology while emphasizing accuracy. Rigie claimed that following erroneous suggestions from bots like this could ruin its goal and require more dialogues with lawyers.

Due to this controversy, the MyCity chatbot now includes a disclaimer warning users that replies may be unreliable or incomplete; hence they should not rely on them for legal or professional purposes.

This incident exemplifies how difficult it is to bring artificial intelligence into public services while also stressing the need for accuracy and dependability when guiding on a legal basis. As the efforts continue toward improving the MyCity chatbot, various stakeholders are still on the lookout for any challenges that may need addressing.

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