Submitted 2 weeks ago by Beep@lemmus.org to technology@lemmy.world
In a press conference this week on New York City’s $12 billion budget gap, Mayor Zohran Mamdani zeroed in on the previous administration’s artificial intelligence chatbot as one of “a number of different things we’re going to pursue for savings.”
It feels ridiculous I have to say this, but it feels so good to hear about a politician just immediately saying “oh yeah, we needed to figure out where to make cuts, and these shitty AI chat bots seemed like an obvious place to start.”
Wild that a politician deciding to terminate an application (and its associated contract) because the application doesn’t actually work as intended seems so odd.
But I like it.
Yes! It is so sad this seems like such a bold move, but we’ve just become so fucking conditioned to bullshit politicians gaslighting us about why everybody else is just going to have to go without in order to keep giving handouts to the most entitled and useless pieces of crap just because they’re already wealthy.
Why? Allegedly because they generate more money… But do they really? Have they ever?
Trickle-down economics, or Reaganomics, is built on the tired promise that handing tax breaks to the wealthy and corporations will magically fix the economy through reinvestment and job creation. This is just a recycled version of the horse-and-sparrow theory, which basically argued that if you feed a horse enough oats, the sparrows can eventually pick through the manure for the leftovers. It is the same gaslighting we see with austerity measures where politicians ignore the actual damage they cause to chase some supposed “greater good,” even though their own policies usually created the economic mess in the first place. You can see it clearly in Arkansas with the new ABAWD food assistance laws that claim to encourage work but actually strip benefits from orphans aging out of foster care and families with kids over fourteen. These policies intentionally gut government revenue to benefit the wealthy and then use that manufactured budget crisis as an excuse to slash public services like education, infrastructure, and social programs.
Adams is a dickhole collaborator. I’m surprised the contract was only around $600k. How much so you think Adams got on top?
I wish Mamdani the best. There’s so much happening to be able to ingest it all, but so far he seems genuine. My natural glare of “what SHIT are you up to!??” has so far yielded nothing; Good. More please!
nothing; Good
A semicolon saves the day.
Just the fact that he added Lina Khan to his team says so much about him.
In a just world Khan would be a prominent political figure on her own, but she’ll do good things in this position.
Oh, look, a leader leading…how strange, not beholden to anything but his constituents? I love this guy.
We’re not used to seeing that around here. Feels a bit odd.
unfortunately we live in times where saying “we’re getting rid of this thing that no one ever asked for and never does anything good” is unusual.
The chatbot, which was released by the Eric Adams administration in fall of 2023, was meant to provide business owners with an accessible way to check city rules and regulations. But as first documented by The Markup and THE CITY, the bot provided answers that, if followed, would lead to illegal behavior by businesses, like taking a cut of employees’ tips.
It’s insane that public institutions make contracts based on promises or hopes. They should be with minimum requirements to be met by the contracted, or not cost in full.
Would the company still go for the contract? Maybe. At least they’d have to eat cost when they can’t meet a defined baseline, effectively taking responsibility to a degree.
Let’s stop using all ai chatbots. That shit is harming earth.
Good luck arguing that my local AI models are harming Earth.
Yes, you can argue phones themselves/lightbulbs harm Earth. I don’t care at that scale.
Are you perchance ignoring the petawatt-hours that was needed to train and distil your local AI model?
Oh, you’re right. Everything being plugged into massive datacenters that use more power than whole countries is ok, because your computer somehow doesn’t use much power per query. I stand corrected, sir.
Real heroism.
Based. Good to see him going for common sense easy issues to keep people engaged while he works on the harder to tackle issues.
isn’t going for the common sense easy issue the opposite of “based”?
It is also the environmental thing to do.
I like him better every day.
He’s got a lot of low-hanging fruit to pluck and he’s not afraid to roll out a wheelbarrow for it.
I asked why NYC had the shittiest mayor a year or so ago… Now I’m wondering why CA doesn’t have one this good.
To be fair, we did at one point… en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayor_Max_II?wprov=sfla1
furiously reading through the handbook
…There’s no rule that says…
Maximus Mighty-Dog Mueller II
This is the kind of waste, fraud, and abuse that Elon was supposed to be getting rid of.
DOGE was Federal not Local
That, in and of itself, is not something that can bridge this kind of a 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.
This is what I see as the important bit, and indicates both a level head and clear communication. We need more politicians across the board who can answer directly like this, and not try to inflate or exaggerate.
Yeah, this really was an excellent answer. I’m impressed by how he used this example to illustrate the wider strategy without it feeling like a weird kind of “we will cut programs like this and then everything will be fine”. It gives the sense that this is being used as an example because it’s simple enough to be at the top of a large pile of potential savings, which will take time and work to dig through.
To put it a different way, his answer abstracts away the right stuff. He doesn’t pretend that everything will be as simple and easy as cutting this one program was.
It was costing the administration around half a million dollars.
How? Surely this was put in place as a cost cutting measure. I mean, terminate it, sure. Pay actual humans. I just have questions.
Often the promised cost savings never materialise, because when the chatbot fucks up, it’s humans who need to clean up the mess.
Because Eric Adams was a terrible mayor who clearly used the mayoral office to pass lucrative contracts to his friends and enrich himself.
At least thats what his chumminess with Trump and his bribery scandal would suggest to me. en.wikipedia.org/…/Investigations_into_the_Eric_A…
Based. Those things will only get pricier.
the bot provided answers that, if followed, would lead to illegal behavior by businesses, like taking a cut of employees’ tips.
and
Today, the bot advises visitors to “ask an NYC government question only” and cautions that “responses may occasionally produce inaccurate or incomplete content.” Visitors must agree to accept the bot’s limitations before using it.
Way to go, Mayor Mamdani!
I dunno I’m in favor of telling businesses to shut themselves down.
I can’t figure out what this comment is supposed to mean
I just saw this clown making a fool of themselves in the whatsapp privacy thread. do yourselves a favor and block them before they drag you into troll levels of stupidity.
Has he made any comment about the massive data center increasing the cost of living there yet? /gen
sorry to bother yall but this guy has been fucking harrasing and creeping on my freind at my collage please send him cursed pics, or like horrifying memes or something, like its gotten so bad that she got fucking injured just trying to avoid the guy his number is 571-420-4603. also take care of yourself, if you can, shits hard right now. and we all deserve better. this is real by the way im not a bot(though who knows thease days) im just on a revenge quest,
Mamndani???
What did Janny say?
HazardousBanjo@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I’ve yet to see any negative headlines about Mamdani ever since hr won election, aside from him opposing primarying Chuck Schumer for some stupid fucking reason.
Seeing the tankies talk about him on .ml would make you think he was leading the 4the Reich. Notice how the proletariat tends to win when we don’t engage in puritanical politics based off of red fascism.
luthis@lemmy.nz 2 weeks ago
The tankies don’t like him?
Schmoo@slrpnk.net 2 weeks ago
They don’t like electoralism, prefer to LARP revolution while doing nothing to actually lay the groundwork for one.
BreadstickNinja@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
One thing I’ve learned as a socialist is that there is always a purity test by people who consider themselves purer socialists.
Karl Marx himself could post on here and people would accuse him of being a neoliberal stooge.
wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz 2 weeks ago
Tankies don’t like anyone, they’ll never be satisfied. I’m fairly certain most of them are russian trolls tasked with sowing discord and fracturing the left.
sudo@programming.dev 2 weeks ago
Historically, a socialist holding an elected executive position of a capitalist government is a precarious position fraught with contradictions. You can only meaningfully govern by making massive concessions to the ruling class and betraying some supporters. Communists will stake out the “he will betray you” position.
FWIW the Mamdani administration is very aware of this contradiction and deliberately made promises that he can do by decree, such as the rent freeze. But there’s also been some rather heinous concessions, like keeping on a bunch of Zionists in the admin, and also keeping on the NYPD commissioner Jessica Tisch.
FlyingCircus@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I’ve been accused of being a tankie, and I think he’s great. But obviously the McCarthyites of Lemmy would rather create a straw man than listen to anything a red has to say.
bdonvr@thelemmy.club 2 weeks ago
I’d say they’re skeptical that Mamdani will keep to his promises or that electing him isn’t enough. But dislike? I bet every one would’ve voted for him.
boolean_sledgehammer@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Tankies don’t like objective reality.
loutr@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
I’ve seen one today: “Mamdani warns about massive NYC deficit! Proof socialism doesn’t work!”. Dude, he wasn’t mayor a month ago, pretty sure socialism isn’t the problem here…
wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz 2 weeks ago
Is that a real headline? If so, that’s extremely dishonest journalism…
bufalo1973@piefed.social 2 weeks ago
Not the first time I read that kind of BS. In Cadiz (Spain), a left wing major said 1 month after being appointed that the previous right wing major left nothing but spider webs in the accounts. The right wing tried to push that as “only a month and he has broken the city”.
partofthevoice@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
Yeah, I’m also liking Mamdani. However, I may be traumatized because I don’t completely trust the situation. What did Mamdani tell Trump to make Trump support him so quickly? Trump did a 180 over night, and I want to know how Mamdani did that…
scintilla@piefed.zip 2 weeks ago
trump will literally agree with anyone he spends an hour talking to. He said he and walz had similar thoughts on what to do in ministota.
UnspecificGravity@piefed.social 2 weeks ago
Trump is barking seal that agrees with any man that is in the same room as him.
SalamenceFury@piefed.social 2 weeks ago
Trump is ridiculously easy to manipulate. Just use the right words and butter him up and he’ll think you’re his buddy.
HazardousBanjo@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I genuinely think its because Trump, and all of his supporters, are colossal pussies when actually challenged and defeated by someone willing to fight them.
If Mamdani made any concession, you’d never hear Trump and his cult not talking about it.
Instead Trump publicly sucked Mamdani’s cock and MAGA is pretending it never happened.
grue@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Expanding on what others have answered, Trump is extremely suggestible due to dementia. He literally just agrees with whoever told him something last because he can’t think on his own anymore.
That’s why it’s even more vital to get rid of fascist advisors like Steven Miller than it is to get rid of Trump himself.
Quill7513@slrpnk.net 2 weeks ago
trump will say anything. he doesn’t support mamdani, at least not in action. but trump wants to be popular and for people to like him, so he will attach himself to anything successful. he loved the new england patriots until the kansas city chiefs became the dynasty to beat. suddenly he was talking about patrick mahomes constantly.
the criticism for that meeting should purely go on mamdani allowing his brand to be attached to a fascist. but that gets into that electoralism will never save us because politicians who play political games to curry favor are inherently compromised. however, the value of electoralism is that it can help us put people who will allow us to organize on the margins in office as we grow our movement
sem@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 weeks ago
Trump can’t afford to dislike anyone overwhelmingly positive.
chaitae3@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Trump can’t hate on Mamdani too much, lest he becomes a folk hero.
wewbull@feddit.uk 2 weeks ago
I think it’s too early to tell with Mamdani. He’s saying all the right things but he needs to deliver on them, and for that he needs time to cook.
protist@mander.xyz 2 weeks ago
All you have to do is mildly flatter Trump and then he’s your best friend
nednobbins@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
I just headed over to .ml and did a local search for “mamdani”
I see a bunch of the more conservatives Democrats and their supporters complaining about him and conservatives of all stripes are really hoping he’ll fail.
I’ve been called a tankie several times and I rather like Mamdani. I see him, AOC, and Sanders as the best hope for the future of the US.
Where are these tankies that hate Mamdani so much? What do they hate him for?
LordCrom@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
What’s a “tankie”?
InternetCitizen2@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I have seen a few, here is one I saved from some time back.
lemmy.ml/post/39249375
A lot of things get removed from
.mlso its hard to go back find things sometimes. If you are around lemmy a while you will find quite a few takes from tankies.mattyroses@lemmy.today 2 weeks ago
They don’t.
There’s two main criticisms of Zohran that come from the left.
One is that while good, his victory is going to be limited because the mayor has little power to enact systematic change. The keeping of Teach (likely to avoid a war with Hochul he can’t win) is a point for this
The second is that it reinforces the Democratic party which actively opposes socialism, by giving it a face of that. And that in that way it also serves to dilute actual revolutionary energy, etc.
You don’t have to agree with those arguments - I don’t fully. But those are them. But considering the person here is hitting a shitlib trifecta - screaming about tankies and horseshoe theory, conspiracy theories about Russian bots, and claiming “nuance” when caught in obvious contradictions - theyre not going to make an actual argument. Just claim ownership of the left for the center, again.
WorldsDumbestMan@lemmy.today 2 weeks ago
Oooh, I’d love to see what stupid shit they are complaining about.
“Oh no! We are going to have healthcare again! Stop him!”
IronBird@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
something something he kept a “genocide supporter” on his cabinet
note, the biggest compliant about him from the other side is that he has too many pro-palestinians in his cabinet
bdonvr@thelemmy.club 2 weeks ago
Source: I made it up
I’ve seen many that are skeptical that he’ll stick to his promises but I don’t think any of that crowd would disagree that he was clearly the best option and a big step forward.
HazardousBanjo@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Found the tankie
Fizz@lemmy.nz 2 weeks ago
The popular tankie influences have soured a bit on him and that sentiment flows down. I think Mamdani said against the protestors shouting globalize the intifada outside of a synagogue which pissed off tankies.
wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz 2 weeks ago
I’ve seen tankies trying to call him fascist on lemmy, and I called them out and said how wrong they are. They responded by calling me a zionist and accusing me of supporting genocide…
These are not rational people arguing in good faith…
TankovayaDiviziya@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Well yeah, it depends exactly what kind of social bubble you are in. If you are in a right wing bubble, you would be led to believe that Mamdani is a wome Muslim terrorist commie.
eskimofry@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I disagree. This just comes off as a half-truth. Mamdani actually is far and away the most pure candiate apart from Bernie Sanders in the whole of US politics.
what according to you is “puritanical politics based off of red facism”?
The people want inclusivity, better welfare for the working class people, better overall healthcare, debt-burden free education and we don’t want a government that’s corporate leaning, takes money from foreign interests, arrests citizens for no explainable reason, fucks up the planet for the profits of a few. We don’t want governments that support genocide, slavery or other atrocities at home or abroad.
Which part of this is “red facism”?
DerisionConsulting@lemmy.ca 2 weeks ago
I believe he banned raspberry pi devices, which is dumb.
Blisterexe@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
From the inauguration, which is kinda weird but inderstandable if you’re not very tech savvy. He didn’t ban them from new york in general