City of New York (MyCity business chatbot)
New York City shuts down its MyCity business chatbot after it gave answers that could lead firms to break the law
New York City released an AI chatbot in fall 2023 to answer business owners' questions about city rules. Testing by The Markup and THE CITY showed it gave answers that would lead to illegal conduct. The new mayor called it unusable, cited a cost of around half a million dollars, and the city took it down in February 2026.
Key figures
Copied exactly from the sources. Copy any figure with its citation.
around half a million dollars
Cost of the chatbot to the administration, as stated by Mayor Mamdani1
nearly $600,000
Reported cost of building the bot's foundations1
What it took
Cost, team size and timeline were not disclosed in the sources.
The problem
New York City wanted business owners to have an easy way to check city rules and regulations. The chatbot was part of MyCity, a project meant to streamline access to government services.
What they built
The city released the MyCity chatbot in fall 2023 under the Adams administration. It was built on Microsoft's cloud platform. The project drew criticism for relying on outside contractors.
How they did it
The sources give few technical details. After reporting by The Markup and THE CITY, the city added disclaimers telling users not to treat answers as legal or professional advice. It improved some answers and appeared to limit the kinds of questions the bot would take. Visitors had to accept the bot's limits before using it.
Results
Testing by The Markup and THE CITY in 2024 found the bot gave confident but wrong answers on high-stakes topics. It suggested landlords could discriminate against tenants with Section 8 vouchers, and that businesses could refuse cash despite a 2020 city law. It also did not know the minimum wage. In January 2026 Mayor Zohran Mamdani called the bot "functionally unusable" and named it as a saving. On 4 February 2026 the city took it down, saying its "beta test has ended".
What went wrong
The bot's advice, if followed, would lead to illegal behaviour by businesses, such as taking a share of employees' tips. The administration promised fixes, but the problems drew continued press attention and the successor administration ended the project.
Lessons for your project
Test a public-facing assistant on high-stakes questions before launch, especially anything that touches the law. Independent testing found answers that would lead users to break it.
Do not rely on disclaimers to limit risk. The city added warnings and narrowed the questions the bot would answer, and the bot was still shut down.
Track the full running cost from the start. The source says it was unclear what the bot cost to maintain.
Plan a review point and an exit. The city ended the project as a beta test after a change of administration.
Caveats
- Both cost figures are statements to the press. One is the mayor's, the other is reported with the word 'reportedly'. The sources say the maintenance cost is unclear.
- The sources do not name the AI model. The Markup says the bot was built on Microsoft's cloud platform, and GovTech says the interface came from Microsoft and was underpinned by OpenAI. Neither source uses the term generative AI or large language model, so the type of AI is inferred from that description and from the bot's free-text answers.
- The Markup gives the launch only as fall 2023. October 2023 is used because GovTech, dated 16 October 2023, reported the chatbot as newly released; the exact go-live day is not stated.
- The article describes the 2024 testing by The Markup and THE CITY. It does not give results of any later testing.
Sources
- Mamdani to kill the NYC AI chatbot we caught telling businesses to break the law
The Markup · 2026-01-30 · News · themarkup.org
- NYC Releases AI Action Plan, Business-Focused AI Chatbot
GovTech · 2023-10-16 · News · govtech.com
Summarized in our own words from the sources above. Spotted an error? See corrections.