""The previous administration had an AI chatbot that was functionally unusable, and was costing the administration around a half a million dollars," Mamdani said in a Wednesday press conference. "That in and of itself is not something that can bridge this gap, but it's an indication of the ways in which money has been spent while refusing to account for the actual costs of what these programs are.""
""For the first time New York City business and aspiring entrepreneurs will be able to direct their questions to an AI-powered chatbot rather than having to scan through webpage after webpage going into the blackhole of uncertainty about how to open a business, how to run a business, how to answer some of the basic questions," he said during the announcement. "That is behind us. AI-generated answering is in front of us.""
"The chatbot was announced in October 2023 as part of then-Mayor Eric Adams' New York City Artificial Intelligence Action Plan. It was meant to give business owners and entrepreneurs actionable and trusted information from more than 2,000 NYC business web pages and articles on topics such as compliance with codes and regulations, available business incentives, and best practices to avoid violations and fines, Adams said at the time."
New York City shut down a Microsoft-powered AI chatbot aimed at helping business owners amid a $12 billion budget shortfall. The chatbot was launched in October 2023 to provide actionable information from more than 2,000 NYC business web pages on compliance, incentives, and best practices. Local testing found the bot often returned incorrect answers, including misleading guidance to would-be landlords about tenants and rent. Mayor Zohran Mamdani said the chatbot cost about half a million dollars and described it as emblematic of prior spending choices, noting the savings are a small fraction of the budget gap.
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