Get the latest tech news

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

The Microsoft-powered bot says bosses can take workers’ tips and that landlords can discriminate based on source of income

When The Markup reached out to Andrew Rigie, Executive Director of the NYC Hospitality Alliance, an advocacy organization for restaurants and bars, he said a business owner had alerted him to inaccuracies and that he’d also seen the bot’s errors himself. can be a powerful tool to support small business so we commend the city for trying to help,” he said in an email, “but it can also be a massive liability if it’s providing the wrong legal information, so the chatbot needs to be fixed asap and these errors can’t continue.” Leslie Brown, a spokesperson for the NYC Office of Technology and Innovation, said in an emailed statement that the city has been clear the chatbot is a pilot program and will improve, but “has already provided thousands of people with timely, accurate answers” about business while disclosing risks to users.

Get the Android app