New York City's Official Bot Told Business Owners to Steal Worker Tips and Refuse Cash
New York City's official MyCity small-business chatbot told owners they could take workers' tips, fire whistleblowers, and refuse cash, and the city left it online after the errors surfaced.
"encouraged behavior that breaks the law"
The Markup
New York City rolled out an official MyCity chatbot to help small businesses, powered by Microsoft, and it confidently coached them to break the law. The Markup found it telling owners they could pocket their workers’ tips and refuse to take cash, each one flatly illegal under city or federal rules. Mayor Eric Adams defended keeping the bot live while it dispensed advice that could get a business sued or shut down. A government that would never let a human clerk hand out this guidance shrugged when a chatbot did it at scale. Read The Markup on the MyCity chatbot.
Source: The Markup
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