How New York Regulates AI ?
Good morning. It’s Thursday. We’ll take a look at why New York City has emerged as a humble pioneer in AI regulation.
We also learn about a property tax exemption for a Brooklyn secret society associated with the Underground Railroad.
Amidst the cacophony over artificial intelligence, my colleague Steve Lohr says New York City has become a pioneer in AI regulation.
The city is taking a focused approach to rules on how companies can use AI in hiring and promotion decisions — which could have life-changing consequences for job applicants or employees looking to move up through the ranks. The rules are an elaboration of a law passed in 2021 that only applies to job applicants and employees who live in New York City, but labor experts expect it will affect practices nationally. The city will begin enforcing the law on July 5.
Automation accelerated the changing nature of job interviews during the pandemic, with chatbots increasingly conducting interviews and resume scanners prioritizing applications after sifting through them for keywords.
The city law says companies using AI software must be clear when hiring and tell job seekers upfront that an automated system will be used. The law also requires companies to have independent auditors annually test the technology for race, ethnicity and gender biases.
The city’s targeted approach represents an important front in AI regulation as policymakers struggle to apply lofty-sounding principles. Robert Holden, a Queens Democrat who chaired the city council’s technology committee when the bill was passed, called it “a significant regulatory success in ensuring that AI technology is used ethically and responsibly.”
But it has become a target of criticism from public interest advocates who say it has been watered down and from corporate groups who find it impractical.
“This was a missed opportunity,” said Albert Fox Cahn, executive director of the Surveillance Technology Surveillance Project, a civil rights and privacy group, told me. “New York had a chance to push back against this dangerous and discriminatory technology, but these new rules don’t go far enough.”
Julia Stoyanovich, an associate professor at New York University and the director of the Center for Responsible AI, said last month she was concerned loopholes could weaken its impact. “But it’s much better than not having a law,” she said. “And until you try to regulate, you don’t learn how.”
The law assesses an ‘impact ratio’, a calculation of the effect of using the software on a protected group of applicants. The law doesn’t look at how an algorithm makes decisions, a concept known as “explainability.” “The focus becomes the output of the algorithm, not the operation of the algorithm,” said Ashley Casovan, executive director of the Responsible AI Institute, which develops certifications for the safe use of AI applications in the workplace, healthcare, and industry. the financial world.
Companies also criticize the law. The Software Alliance – a trade group that includes Microsoft, SAP and Workday – called independent audits of AI “impracticable” because the industry has yet to establish standards or organize professional oversight bodies.
Cahn, of the surveillance technology group, had broader objections.
“We don’t need audit requirements, we need a ban,” he told me. “This is technology that we don’t have the tools to reliably monitor, and I’m afraid these regulations give companies the power to issue themselves a clean bill of health. At least with financial audits, we agree on many of the basics of what constitutes a good audit. No one really agrees on what it takes to control many of these systems.”
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‘A lifeline’ for the home of the United Order of Tents
“It’s a lifeline,” says Jacques David, a lawyer with the Legal Aid Society.
He was talking about the city’s decision to grant property tax exemptions to the United Order of Tents, a secret society of black women founded after the Civil War, whose headquarters in New York is a striking Brooklyn mansion. But membership in the group had dwindled and the mansion needs work.
“What this really means is that the tents can save the headquarters,” said David, who represented the nonprofit in challenging the city’s earlier denial of an exemption. “The organization is identified by this building, and so the organization will be preserved. They are already experiencing a renaissance. All these things will now blossom.”
He said the group was paid about $265,000 in property taxes from the city, which erroneously considered the house empty. City Councilman Justin Brannan, the chairman of the finance committee, said he stepped in after hearing about the problems.
“I was morally obligated to participate,” he said. “I could not stand by and allow the City of New York to essentially evict an organization with such deep historical and cultural significance.” The group in Brooklyn, officially the United Order of Tents Eastern District No. 3, bought the mansion in 1945.
When my colleague Dodai Stewart wrote about the tents last winter, the house had fallen into disrepair, with boarded-up windows, crumbling plaster, peeling paint and worrying water damage. She wrote that the tents had been battling over property taxes for nearly 10 years, risking a tax lawsuit that could have cost them the property. They sold part of their lot to a developer and spent the money on repairs that didn’t go smoothly.
David said the tents were now looking to stabilize the building and began applying for program grants. He said it was already received one totaling $100,000 from the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund run by the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
“Our Bedford-Stuyvesant headquarters has served the community for more than 75 years,” Essie Gregory, the tents’ president, said in a statement, “and with this tax exemption, we can carry on our legacy for many years to come.”
$20 bill
Dear Diary:
It was a nice, breezy Friday night, nice enough that I decided to walk around town after work instead of taking the L.
As I waited to cross Second Avenue, I saw a woman get out of a car. Then I saw a $20 bill float through the air into the intersection.
The woman looked sad. Cars streamed down. The bill danced around taxis and trucks. Did she dare jump into traffic? Was it worth it?
Everyone waiting at the intersection stared mesmerized at the woman and her $20 bill. I wondered what I would do if it was my $20 that got caught in the wind.