good morning. It’s Thursday. Find out why New York City has emerged as a modest pioneer in AI regulation. You’ll also find out about property tax exemptions for Brooklyn secret societies that have ties to the Underground Railroad.
In the midst of the artificial intelligence cacophony, my colleague Steve Lohr says New York City has pioneered AI regulation.
The city is taking a rule-focused approach to how businesses can use AI in hiring and promotion decisions. This could have life-changing consequences for job seekers and workers seeking promotion. The provision embodies a 2021 law that applies only to applicants and employees residing in New York City, but labor experts expect it will have an impact on practice nationwide. The city plans to begin enforcing the law on July 5.
Automation has accelerated the changing nature of interviews during the pandemic, with more chatbots conducting interviews and resume scanners prioritizing applications after looking up keywords.
City law stipulates that companies using AI software for recruitment must notify job seekers in advance and make it clear that an automated system will be used. The law also requires companies to have independent auditors test their technology annually for racial, ethnic and gender bias.
As policymakers grapple with applying lofty principles, the city’s focused approach will be an important frontier in AI regulation. Queens Democrat Robert Holden, who chaired the city council technology committee when the law was passed, said the law would “ensure that AI technology is used ethically and responsibly. It’s a huge regulatory success,” he said.
But it has been the subject of criticism from public interest activists who say it has been watered down, and business groups who think it is unrealistic.
“This was a wasted opportunity,” Albert Fox-Kahn, executive director of the Surveillance Technology Surveillance Project, a civil rights and privacy organization, told me. “New York has had an opportunity to fight back against this dangerous and discriminatory technology, but these new rules are not enough.”
Julia Stojanovic, an associate professor at New York University and director of the Center for Responsible AI, said last month she was concerned that loopholes in the law could weaken its influence. “But it’s much better than no law,” she says. “And you can’t learn how to do it until you try to regulate it.”
The law assesses an “impact rate” that calculates the impact of software use on a protected group of job seekers. The law doesn’t take into account how algorithms make decisions, a concept known as ‘explainability’. “The focus will be on the output of the algorithm, not what the algorithm does,” said an executive at his Responsible AI Institute, which develops certifications for the secure use of AI applications in the workplace, healthcare and finance. Director, Ashley Kasoban said.
Businesses have also criticized the law. The Software Alliance, an industry group that includes Microsoft, SAP and Workday, says an independent audit of AI is ‘impossible’ because the industry has not drafted standards or organized a professional oversight body. claimed to be.
Khan of the Surveillance Technology Group made a broader objection.
“We don’t need an audit requirement. We need a ban,” he told me. “This is a technology that we don’t have the tools to reliably audit, and I worry that these regulations will empower companies to demonstrate clean health. At least we agree on many of the basics of what constitutes a good audit, and no one agrees on what it takes to audit many of these systems.”
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A “lifeline” for the home of the Tent Coalition
“It’s a lifeline,” said Jack David, an attorney at the Legal Aid Society.
He was talking about the city’s decision to exempt property taxes from the United Order of Tents, a secret society of black women organized after the Civil War and whose New York headquarters are located in an impressive mansion in Brooklyn. . However, the group’s membership is dwindling and the mansion needs construction.
“What this honestly means is that the tents can save the headquarters building,” said David, who has challenged the city’s earlier refusal of exemptions and served as president of the nonprofit. Told. “Organizations are preserved because they are identified by this building. They are already having a renaissance. All of this will flourish now.”
He said the city mistakenly identified the house as vacant, which resulted in the group being charged about $265,000 in property taxes. City Councilman Justin Brannan, chairman of the finance committee, said he heard about the issue and intervened.
“I had a moral obligation to participate,” he said. “There was no way New York City could silently allow the virtual eviction of an organization with such deep historical and cultural significance.” The Brooklyn group, formally known as the United Order of Tents The 3rd Division of the Eastern District purchased the mansion in 1945.
When my colleague Dodai Stewart wrote about the tent last winter, the house was in disrepair, with boarded up windows, crumbling plaster, peeling paint, and nasty water damage. She wrote that the Tents had been battling property taxes for almost a decade and were risking a tax lien that could result in the loss of the property. They sold part of the site to a developer and spent the money on poor repairs.
David said the tent team is now looking to stabilize the building and has begun applying for grants for the program. He said he has already received a total of $100,000 from the African-American Cultural Heritage Action Fund, which is run by the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
“Our Bedford-Stuyvesant headquarters has been serving the community for over 75 years,” Tent’s president Essie Gregory said in a statement. come. “
Metropolitan Diary
twenty dollar bill
Dear Diary:
It was a beautiful windy Friday night, so beautiful that after work I decided to walk across town instead of taking the L.
As I was waiting to cross Second Avenue, I noticed a woman getting out of her car. Then I saw a $20 bill floating in the air and falling at an intersection.
The woman looked shocked. The car drifted through the second. Bill danced around cabs and trucks. Did she dare to jump into traffic? Was it worth it?
Everyone waiting at the intersection looked mesmerized at the woman and the $20 bill. I wondered what would happen if my $20 got caught in the wind.
