PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Kate Brennan, Associate Director of AI Now Institute
2:55:39
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168 sec
Kate Brennan from the AI Now Institute presented testimony highlighting three main concerns about the MyCity portal, particularly its future as a centralized predictive data platform. She emphasized the risks of entrenching Big Tech interests in public infrastructure, the lack of accountability when AI projects fail, and the prioritization of outsourced contracts over in-house public tech jobs.
- Warned against using MyCity to justify and entrench Big Tech corporate interests in public infrastructure
- Highlighted concerns about private firms evading accountability when public AI projects fail, citing the example of the MyCity chatbot providing incorrect information
- Urged pushing back against the city's prioritization of outsourced contracts over in-house public tech jobs
Kate Brennan
2:55:39
Good afternoon, Sherry.
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Good Tiaras and members of the committee on technology.
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My name is Kate Brennan, and I'm the associate director at the ANAL Institute, a New York City based policy organization shaping artificial intelligence in the public interest.
2:55:54
My brief testimony today highlights 3 principal concerns we have with the MyCity portal's current trajectory, and in particular, the future vision of MyCity as a centralized predictive data platform.
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First, MyCiti must not be used to justify and entrench Big Tex corporate interests in public infrastructure.
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Public AI projects like MyCiti are currently designed to require partnering with large tech companies.
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For example, the city has already contracted with Microsoft AI to launch the MyCiti chatbot.
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These companies have everything to gain from public investment.
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For 1, they're enriched with more data to train and improve their models.
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And even where agencies don't contracted Big Tech Firms directly, these firms benefit because they control all essential inputs in the AI supply chain, such as cloud computing, data centers, and foundation models.
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And what does this mean for the public?
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More opaque infrastructures for citizen surveillance.
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This concern is especially stark with the proposed MiCITY digital wallets that allow government agencies and without proper safeguards, private companies.
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To track how New Yorkers are spending their own money.
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These kinds of large government contracts only further worsen concentration of power in the tech industry.
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Today widely understood to be bad for innovation, bad for security, and dangerous for democracy.
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2nd, we cannot allow private firms to hide behind corporate secrecy laws and evade accountability when public AI projects fail.
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We've already seen this play out, the MyCiti chatbot partnered with Microsoft and provided wrong and illegal information to New Yorkers.
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And, crucially, when the city attempted to understand the chatbot's training data, Microsoft claimed that the data was proprietary to the vendor and evaded accountability, leaving government oversight committees in the dark.
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3rd, and finally, we must push back against the city's prioritization of outsourced contracts over in house public tech jobs.
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We expand upon each of these concerns in our submitted written testimony, which we'll submit shortly after this.
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In conclusion, we must reject public investment in AI projects that line the pockets of large corporations at the expense of New Yorkers privacy, autonomy, and jobs.
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This committee has the opportunity and responsibility to ensure that New York City invest in technology built by and for its people.
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Thank you so much.
