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Dear New Yorkers,

In October, New York City announced a plan to harness the power of artificial intelligence to improve the business of government.

The news included a surprising centerpiece: an AI-powered chatbot that would provide New Yorkers with information on starting and operating businesses in the city.

There is just one problem, as our partners at The Markup report: The city’s chatbot is often telling businesses to break the law. That includes wrong advice about wages, rent vouchers and funeral home prices.

Five months after its launch, it’s clear that while the bot appears authoritative, the information it provides on housing policy, worker rights, and rules for entrepreneurs is often incomplete and in worst-case scenarios “dangerously inaccurate,” as one local housing policy expert said.

Read more about the chatbot’s often inadvisable advice here.

Weather scoop by New York Metro Weather Friday's Weather Rating: 6/10. Rain is gone (thankfully), and partly sunny skies will return today. High temperatures will reach the mid-50s this afternoon, but we've got a blustery northwest wind to keep us in check for most of the day. The vibes are … all right!

Our Other Top Stories

The Adams administration has awarded a no-bid $33 million contract to the Keefe Group, a Rikers Island food concessionaire that has charged incarcerated people and their families prices that are twice as high as those at local stores. In doing so, the administration overrode the contract’s rejection by Comptroller Brad Lander, the city’s top fiscal watchdog, who cited a “litany of procedural failures and contract shortcomings.” Lander had cited an investigation by THE CITY that exposed high prices and poor service by the vendor. New York City’s contentious annual process to determine rent hikes on nearly one million rent-controlled apartments kicked off on Thursday with a public meeting of the Rent Guidelines Board. It revealed a tale of two cities: Owners’ income surged in Manhattan and sagged in The Bronx amid the pandemic recovery, with 1 in 10 buildings now spending more to operate than tenants pay. Now the board must reckon with that inequality as it decides what rent increase rate to set for this year.

Reporter’s Notebook

Train Spotters

Gun-detection scanners will be put to the test in subway stations as part of the NYPD’s latest attempt to cut crime in the transit system, the mayor announced Thursday. The idea is to put metal detectors equipped with artificial intelligence technology near station entrances.

Mayor Eric Adams hyped up the moonshot concept at Fulton Center, saying “this is a Sputnik moment — when President Kennedy said we were going to put a man on the moon and everyone responded.”

As of Sunday, the NYPD said officers have seized 450 weapons in the subway this year, including 19 illegal guns — a 72% surge from the 261 weapons seized during the same period in 2023.

Adams first floated the idea of subway weapons scanners in the wake of an April 2022 subway shooting in Brooklyn. The mayor would not specify how scanners made by the gun-tech firm Evolv Technology will be deployed within the 472-station system, saying that would be determined by a “complete analysis” of where there have been gun arrests or shots fired.

The Surveillance Technology Oversight Project, a New York-based privacy and civil rights group, panned Adams for planning to do business with a “scandal-plagued company” that is under federal investigation.

Evolv scanners are currently in use at Lincoln Center, Citi Field and Jacobi Medical Center. THE CITY reported in 2022 that the public schedules for Deputy Mayor Phillip Banks showed he met multiple times with Evolv executives.

— Jose Martinez

Things To Do

Here’s what’s going on around the city this week.

Saturday, March 30: Activists on Screen: Queer Gaze in Cinema, a pair of films followed by a conversation about trans New Yorkers’ lives. Tickets are $10 ($5 for members), at 3 p.m. at the Museum of the City of New York. Saturday, March 30: Let's Go Birding Together, an inclusive event for all levels of curiosity and expertise, hosted by NYC Audubon. Free from 10 to 11:30 a.m. at Icahn Stadium, Randall’s Island Park. Sunday, March 31: The annual NYC Easter Parade. (Don't forget your bonnet!) Free from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., from 49th Street to 57th Street on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan.

THE KICKER: Lords Bakery, a decades-old neighborhood standby in Flatbush, closed this week. On its last day, staff gave away its famed baked goods for free.

Thanks, as always, for reading. Make it a great Friday.

Love,

THE CITY

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