Tag: New York

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New York City’s Chatbot: A Warning to Other Government Agencies?

A good article by The Markup assessed the accuracy of New York City’s municipal chatbot. The chatbot is intended to provide New Yorkers with information about starting or operating a business in the city. The journalists found the chatbot regularly provided false or incorrect information which could result in legal repercussions for businesses and significantly discriminate against city residents. Problematic outputs included incorrect housing-related information, whether businesses must accept cash for services rendered, whether employers can take cuts of employees’ tips, and more. 

While New York does include a warning to those using the chatbot, it remains unclear (and perhaps doubtful) that residents who use it will know when to dispute outputs. Moreover, the statements of how the tool can be helpful and sources it is trained on may cause individuals to trust the chatbot.

In aggregate, this speaks to how important it is to effectively communicate with users, in excess of policies simply mandating some kind of disclosure of the risks associated with these tools, as well as demonstrates the importance of government institutions more carefully assessing (and appreciating) the risks of these systems prior to deploying them.

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Researchers Are Chipping and Surveilling NYC’s Rats

Researchers Are Chipping and Surveilling NYC’s Rats:

Parson’s and his team use traps baited with pheromones—not food—to capture the rats. They know where to place the traps because rats frequently navigate the dark tunnels where they live not with their eyes, but with their fur. Rubbing themselves against walls creates a trail that’s visible with an ultraviolet dark light. According to the study the trail glows blue–white if it’s fresh, yellow–white if old. The trap has a sensor attached to it that alerts the researcher by cell phone when a rat has been caught.

Once a rat has been caught, a mobile lab is deployed. Inside researchers wearing thick gloves render the rat unconscious by dipping the rat trap in a plastic induction container filled with isoflurane, a kind of ether. An unconscious rat is an easy rat to draw specimens from. Before it wakes up, the rat blood is drawn and an RFID chip is implanted.

An interesting bit of news in addition to previous writing on rats.

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Aside Quotations

More Visibility, Less Privacy

While admitting that increased surveillance was “scary” and that governments will have to be thoughtful with their laws, [Bloomberg] seemed to side with prioritizing radical transparency, especially through the use of automated drones, “but what’s the difference whether the drone is up in the air or on the building? I mean intellectually I have trouble making a distinction.”

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Lest Bloomberg be labeled as a surveillience hawk, the interview took on a tone of inevitability, rather than advocacy: “Everybody wants their privacy, but I don’t know how you’re going to maintain it.”

Gregory Ferenstein, “Bloomberg: ‘We’re Going To Have More Visibility And Less Privacy,’ Drones And Surveillance Coming”

Correct me if I’m wrong, but his sentence “Everybody wants their privacy, but I don’t know how you’re going to maintain it” indicates a failure to understand his role as a politician. If everybody – including, one presumes, residents of New York city – “wants their privacy” then it is his job, and that of council, to protect and preserve those constituents’ privacy.

To be clear: it is not his job to authorize enhanced surveillance, and then throw his hands up and say that he doesn’t get how his constituents are going to realize their wishes as he and council march against those interests.

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Routes of Least Surveillance (Manhattan, USA, circa 2001)

From “An Atlas of Radical Cartography” edited by Lize Mogel and Alexis Bhagat.

This is a ridiculously cool idea. I’d love to see something similar that used Google fusion tables + a game to map  CCTV locations in order to give surveillance-minimized travel directions.