Latest / Sid & Friends In The Morning / David Carr | Republican Minority Leader of the New York City Council Previews Today's NYC Council A.I. Summit

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David Carr | Republican Minority Leader of the New York City Council Previews Today's NYC Council A.I. Summit · Sid & Friends In The Morning

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Let's talk to David Carr, the great city councilman out
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: of Staten Island. One of the two there with Frank Marano. David,
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: good morning, buddy. How are you?
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: Good morning, Sid. I'm great. How are you?
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: I'm great. Are you on your way to– what time
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: does this meeting start, this AI meeting?
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: It's going to start at 11 a.m. today. I'll be
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: on my way as soon as you and I finish
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: chatting about it.
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: Okay, great. So as far as I know, everybody, all
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: 51 members from the council, they're going to be there today, yes?
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so this is a meeting of the committee of
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: the whole. Basically, the entire body sits as a committee
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: to hear, do oversight and hear testimony about potential legislation.
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: This only happens when there's really important matters. to review.
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: And the last time the council did this was at
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: the end of 2022. And we had a committee of
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: the whole on the migrant crisis. I have a lot
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: higher hopes for this meeting than I did for that one,
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: because most of my colleagues spent time trying to see
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: what more the city should be doing for the migrants.
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: So that was a missed opportunity for sure. But I
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: think today, you know, I think this is the issue
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: of the moment. So I think it's really timely that
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: we're doing it.
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: And there are really two sides to this, like everything else, obviously.
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: One is the Trump side. I'm on Trump's side, which is, okay,
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: we've got to beat China. We need to be number
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: one in AI. That's it, all right? Take it easy
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: with the guardrails and the bots are taking over the
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: world and all the safety issues. Then there's the other side,
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: which I just mentioned, with some of these bigwigs that
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: these AI giants are the first to say, you know,
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: it's dangerous. We need guardrails. We can't just get too
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: carried away with this stuff. Where does David Carr fall
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: on this, and where do you think the city council
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: falls on this?
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: So, you know, I agree with the president when he
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: said the most important thing is self-regulation, right? And I
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: think that's true in any industry, and no field of
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: endeavor can succeed unless you have corporate entities who are
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: acting responsibly in these areas. But I think also this
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: is an important moment where AI companies can be on
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: the ground floor of whatever approach the city or other
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: parts of our government are going to take moving forward.
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: I think what we've seen in the past is when
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: you have new fields of endeavor, they build up all
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: this architecture in an environment with no regulations, and then
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: government comes barreling in later on down the line. and
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: it causes significant disruption to their costs. I mean, you're
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: even seeing now with OpenAI cooperating with the investigation into
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: recent data breaches, it's costing them half a million a
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: day to cooperate with DOJ. So I think that they
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: have a financial stake, and the president's right. This is
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: an incredibly powerful and valuable tool, and I think we
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: need to protect it. So I'm coming into this hearing
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: with an open mind. I want to hear what these
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: companies have to say. I want to hear what others
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: have to say about it. And then I think, you know,
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: we have to figure out our approach because this is
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: a technology that's fast growing, fast evolving. It's part of
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: so much of our lives professionally and personally already. And
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: I think that there's a lot of opportunities ahead.
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: I think most people are confused. They know about AI.
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: You Google stuff now, for example, and AI pops up, right?
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: And they know about it in schools. They know about
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: it in courts. They know about it in all your businesses.
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: But most people don't know the nitty-gritty. They just know
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: that there's a battle going on right now, and there
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: are meetings being held everywhere about it, from the White
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: House just about 10 days ago to you guys today.
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: So what do you want to accomplish when this meeting
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: is over today? What does the city council look to do,
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: David Carr, in the near future?
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: So I think I think some of the things you
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: see on the agenda of the council today, you know,
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: you have, you know, my colleague, you mentioned Frank Morano earlier.
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: He has a bill that's about, you know, protecting people
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: in terms of their health.
• 4:01
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: A lot of people, even before I were going to
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: WebMD and doing some self-diagnosis. Now you have people talking
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: to chatbots trying to figure out what they've got, what
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: they need to do health-wise before or even an alternative
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: of seeking help from a doctor, right? So I think
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: that he's looking to protect people from getting bad information
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  Speaker 2: because AI sometimes gives very bad information. I do think
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: the speaker has a piece of legislation that talks about
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: whether we need a kill switch, a human kill switch
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: for these programs or not. I'm really interested to hear
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: from these companies whether they think these sorts of safeguards,
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: as you called them earlier, are necessary. And if not,
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: why not? And I think so. I think this is
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: really an important information gathering exercise. And I look forward
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: to really hearing what everyone has to say.
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: No, I get it. But practically, what does it mean
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: for the city? In other words, you're not building data centers, okay?
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: So practically, what does it mean for the city?
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: So, I mean, I think practically the city engages in
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: a lot of contracting with private entities, many of which
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: may now be offering AI services as part of their suite.
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: And there's a lot of companies that may be using
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: it as a background thing when they already have a
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: city contract. So we have a little bit of an
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: approach there where we're trying to get to an understanding
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: of how this is going to affect cities contracting. Maybe
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: it actually helps us save money in the long term.
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: And the city council has... pretty strong economic regulatory powers.
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: I think sometimes that's not for the best that other
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: municipal legislative bodies don't have. So I think that the
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: council is looking for is like, what if anything are
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: we permitted to do here, particularly in light of the
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: fact that Congress hasn't done much, right? If Congress has
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: already passed some things, we're preempted usually from getting involved.
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: But in this case, because there's this absence of legislation,
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: of regulation coming out of D.C., cities and states are
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: going to look to see if they can fill that gap.
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: And I think that's also going to be part of
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: the question today. What lawfully are we empowered to do?
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: And on the way out, David Carr, you really are terrific.
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: You know that. You're a great Staten Island City Council
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: member who will be the next Staten Island Borough President.
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: That's right. I said it, and I'll say it again.
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: He will be the next Staten Island Borough President. David,
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: you're welcome. Are you guys... infighting about this with the
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: Democrats or not, Willie?
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: I think that remains to be seen. I think that
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: there is an instinct to regulate, which, frankly, I and
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: my colleagues on the right never have. But I think
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: we're going to have to see whether the approach today
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: is one where folks have already made up their mind
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: and they want to go guns a-blazing into this, or
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: is it really a legitimate information-gathering exercise? You talked about
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: it earlier. There are some people that seem to think
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: AI is like Skynet from Terminator, that suddenly everything is
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: going to be a disaster. But I think it's more
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: about seeing the opportunities and making sure we don't stymie
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: them by trying to maybe get at some of the
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: things on the margins that have been problematic. But I
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: think it's important we acknowledge that AI, like everything else,
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: nothing's 100% a good thing. And I think maybe there
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: could be a precision way for us to get involved.
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: But I really think we have to be open-minded about this.
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: If we just have ideological blinders on going in, then
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: we're going to be doomed to make things worse.
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: Final 60 seconds. You guys need to hold a meeting
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: about this. My friend Deborah Lee was on social media
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: talking about this over the weekend. Mamdani, there's nothing to
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: do with the AI technology. Mamdani banning the NYPD from
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: responding to 311 calls about homeless encampments. So the consensus
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: among smart people is, is that this winter, we're going
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: to look more and more like Los Angeles. There'll be
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: homeless encampments all over the place. Are you guys at
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: the city council aware of him banning this? And are
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: you prepared to do something about it?
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: I definitely heard about it. It's absolutely the wrong decision.
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: The reality is, is that when you're dealing with the
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: homeless in the city or really anywhere, there needs to
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: be a public safety component to the approach. Yes, there
• 8:10
  Speaker 2: are some people that need help. They need to get
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: into a shelter. They need to get into programs. But
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: you never know how folks are going to react when
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: a civilian employee of the city or some agency approaches.
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: And it might actually put them in danger. You need
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: to have officers on the scene. They need to be
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: leading the response. And the fact that they're not allowed
• 8:30
  Speaker 2: to respond to them anymore, you're 100 percent right. The
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: 10 cities are only going to go up faster and
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: they're going to get larger. And you mentioned the winter response.
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: We could have more people dying on the streets because
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: of this policy. People are going to freeze to death.
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: Sometimes people need to be told that they need to
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: get inside. They need to be told to get into
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: a shelter. And if you're not a police officer, you
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: can't tell people to do that. So I think that
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: this is just a disaster in the making, and it
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: absolutely needs to be reversed and reconsidered.
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: You talk about people dying. He just had that last year,
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: that snowstorm. Like more than a dozen people, like 20-something
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: people died. You'd think he'd be sensitive to the fact
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: a moron, the mayor. I guess he doesn't care. David
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: Carr is always an amazing job. Good luck in your
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: meeting today, and please keep coming back. You really are terrific.
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: Thank you so much.
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: Thank you, Sid.
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: Take care. David Carr right there, one of our five
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: Republican city council people, one of the two from Staten Island,
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: in fact, one will be in the other, and he
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: is running... But Borough President beat up what Sellers done
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: after this. David Carr, our next Borough President in Staten Island.
• 9:32
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• 9:36
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• 9:38
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• 9:41
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• 9:57
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• 9:59
  Speaker 2: Subscribe.
• 9:50
  Speaker 3: What the heck is going on here?