New York City could be the first place in the country where consumers are protected from a “doom loop” of AI-powered customer service chatbots, per a rule proposed today by Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s administration.<\/p>\n
The rule would require businesses to connect people to a human customer service agent quickly if a chatbot cannot fulfill their requests.<\/p>\n
“When corporations force you to fight your way through an endless doom loop of AI-generated responses to speak to another human being, they’re stealing your time, money, and patience,” Mamdani said in a release. “This rule makes clear: Customer service cost-cutting can’t come at New Yorkers’ expense.”<\/p>\n
Businesses would have to disclose when customers are talking to AI and offer an “easy off-ramp” to a human representative, with violators subject to fines that would start at $525.<\/p>\n
At the helm of Mamdani’s consumer protection efforts are several Biden administration alumni: Samuel Levine, commissioner of the city’s Department of Consumer and Worker Protection, previously led the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection under the agency’s then-chair Lina Khan, and Deputy Mayor Julie Su was acting labor secretary during the Biden era.<\/p>\n
Khan is also part of Mamdani’s administration, serving as board chair of the city’s Economic Development Board.<\/p>\n