--- title: "NYC’s Mayor Using AI to Make Robocalls of Him Speaking Chinese and Yiddish" description: "While announcing the city's AI plans, NYC's mayor bragged that his voice is now being cloned to make robocalls in Mandarin and Yiddish." date: "2023-10-18" modified: "2023-10-18" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/nyc-mayor-ai-robocalls" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" tags: - "nyc" - "politics" - "the digest" - "voice cloning" --- # NYC’s Mayor Using AI to Make Robocalls of Him Speaking Chinese and Yiddish ![While announcing the city's AI plans, NYC's mayor bragged that his voice is now being cloned to make robocalls in Mandarin and Yiddish.]() *\Image: Spencer Platt via Getty\* ## Domo Arigato While announcing the city's plan to handle artificial intelligence, [New York City's galaxy-brained mayor]() bragged that his voice is now being cloned to make robocalls in Mandarin and Yiddish. "People stop me on the street all the time, they say 'I don’t know you speak Mandarin,'" Adams said at a [Monday press conference](). "Conversational AI is amazing — once you put the script in, you can put in any language you want, with my voice." For what it's worth, the thing Adams is referencing here is [AI voice cloning]() used to make pre-recorded automated messages, not conversational AI, which is used to [generate human-like conversations]() between a person and a machine — but there's not much use [splitting hairs]() when it comes to [this guy]()['s outrageous antics](). As [*Politico* points out](), the robocalls, which per the mayor's commentary seem to have also been translated into Yiddish, Urdu, and possibly Spanish, did not disclose that they were generated with AI voice cloning. To Adams' mind, at least, those concerns are beside the point. "These are part of the broader conversations that the philosophical people will have to sit down and figure out, 'Is this ethically right or wrong?' I’ve got one thing: I’ve got to run the city," the mayor continued. "And I have to be able to speak to people in languages that they understand and I’m happy to do so." ## Programming Note In spite of the weirdness of the multilingual robocalls — and the [cop-turned-politician]()'s strange and seemingly false claim that he was once a "computer programmer" — the main thrust of the press conference was to announce the city's extensive "AI action plan," which includes the [MyCity Chatbot](), described as a "one-stop shop for city services and benefits." "For the first time, business owners and aspiring entrepreneurs will be able to direct their questions to an AI‑powered chatbot rather than scan through Web page after Web page," Adams said. "That is behind us; AI‑generated answering is in front of us." As a disclaimer points out, the MyCity Chatbot was built using Microsoft's Azure AI, which, in turn, has been [optimized with OpenAI's ChatGPT]() in a sort of AI ouroboros situation. The MyCity Chatbot is, as the mayor bragged, trained on about 2,000 pages of documents regarding city codes, permitting requirements, and "best practices." When *Futurism* asked the chatbot who Eric Adams and Rudy Giuliani were, however, it could not tell us. ![]() *New York City's MyCity Chatbot doesn't know the names of its current and former mayor. Image via NYC.gov/screenshot.* During the presser, Adams — who infamously decided to [relaunch the NYPD's notorious "digidog]()" robot in spite of it [being widely despised]() — proudly proclaimed himself a "techie." If we had to bank on what we've seen so far from the city's high-tech endeavors under this administration, however, we'd be forced to call the mayor's bluff. **More on NYC:** [*Scientists Say No, NYC Isn't Sinking Because of Its Skyscrapers*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()