The Big Apple’s top cop on Wednesday unveiled a new Citizen-like app that will allow people to report crimes — and even pay a cop a compliment — with a tap of a screen.
Because what could go wrong?
“This is a new era in policing,” Commissioner Keechant Sewell said at the department’s annual State of the NYPD address. “[The] technology will promote and enhance public safety and evolve neighborhood policing.”
The Step Forward app, which is currently in development, will allow users to “compliment” a police officer, chat about community safety concerns” and link to the NYPD’s social media pages.
With the app, New Yorkers will also be able to receive location-based safety alerts, as well as access crime statistics in their neighborhoods, get accident reports and find information on precinct meetings.
At the meetings, neighbors will be able to make suggestions to officers about how to fix crime-plagued or dangerous areas.
“It’s very exciting,” she said. “We think that the communities that we serve have their own ideas about what’s happening [on the street],” she said.
NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell showcased the department’s new crime-fighting app.Tina Moore / New York PostThe NYPD’s Step Forward app allows users to report crimes.Tina Moore / New York Post “This is their opportunity to tell us what they need from their police department. So they’re actually going to be able to talk to us on Zoom and talk to us about conditions, traffic conditions or dangerous areas, things that they would like us to address.”
It wasn’t immediately clear when the app would launch or what specific crimes users can report via smartphone.
And the rise of the machines leaves many well-paid workers vulnerable, experts warn.
“AI is replacing the white-collar workers. I don’t think anyone can stop that,” said Pengcheng Shi, an associate dean in the department of computing and information sciences at Rochester Institute of Technology.
“This is not crying wolf,” Shi told The Post. “The wolf is at the door.”
From the financial sector to health care to publishing, a number of industries are currently vulnerable, Shi said. But as AI continues its mind-blowing advancements, he maintains that humans will learn how to harness the technology.
Artificial intelligence is already at a point where it can do the jobs people are paid for.ShutterstockAI is already having an impact on multiple industries, professors warn.dpa/picture alliance via Getty I Already, AI is upending certain fields, particularly after the release of ChatGPT,a surprisingly intelligent chat botreleased in November that’s free to the public.
Earlier this month, it emerged that consumer publication CNET had been using AI to generate stories since late last year — a practice put on pause after fierce backlash on social media. Academia was recently rocked by news that ChatGPT had scored higher than many humans on an MBA exam administered at Penn’s elite Wharton School. After Darren Hick, a philosophy professor at South Carolina’s Furman University, caught a student cheating with the wildly popular tool, he told The Post that the discovery had left him feeling “abject terror” for what the future might entail.
Hick and many others are right to be worried said Chinmay Hegde, a computer science and electrical engineering associate professor at New York University.
“Certain jobs in sectors such as journalism, higher education, graphic and software design — these are at risk of being supplemented by AI,” said Hegde, who calls ChatGPT in its current state, “very, very good, but not perfect.”
For now, anyway.
Here, a look at some of the jobs most vulnerable to the fast-learning, ever-evolving technology.
Education
Professors and teachers could be replaced by AI courses, according to experts.Getty Images As it stands now, ChatGPT —currently banned in NYC schools— “can easily teach classes already,” Shi said. The tool would likely be most effective at middle- or high-school level, he added, as those classes reinforce skills already established in elementary school.
“Although it has bugs and inaccuracies in terms of knowledge, this can be easily improved. Basically, you just need to train the ChatGPT,” Shi continued.
As for higher education, both Shi and Hegde maintain that college courses will need a human leader for the foreseeable future, but the NYU professor did admit that, in theory, AI could teach without oversight.
In the meantime, educators are seeing their roles transformed nearly overnight. It’s already become a struggle to adapt teaching and testing methods in efforts to keep up with the increasingly talented ChatGPT, which, according to Shi, can successfully complete a corner-cutting student’s coursework at a master’s level.
Ph.D. candidates hoping for a shortcut are likely out of luck — creating an independent thesis on an area not often or thoroughly studied is beyond AI’s abilities for the time being, he said.
Finance
AI like ChatGPT could take over spreadsheet-style jobs in finance, experts warn.Getty Images
Wall Street could see many jobs axed in coming years, as bots like ChatGPT continue to better themselves, Shi told The Post.
“I definitely think [it will impact] the trading side, but even [at] an investment bank, people [are] hired out of college and spend two, three years to work like robots and do Excel modeling — you can get AI to do that,” he explained. “Much, much faster.”
Shi is certain, however, that crucial financial and economic decisions will likely always be left in human hands, even if the data sheets are not.
Software engineering
Relatively simple software-design jobs are at risk.Getty Images/Maskot
Website designers and engineers responsible for comparatively simple coding are at risk of being made obsolete, Hegde warns.
“I worry for such people. Now I can just ask ChatGPT to generate a website for me — any type of person whose routine job would be doing this for me is no longer needed.”
In essence, AI can draft the code — hand-tailored to a user’s request and parameters — to build sites and other pieces of IT.
The days of relatively uncomplicated software-design jobs will be a thing of the past by 2026 or sooner, Shi said.
“As time goes on, probably today or the next three, five, 10 years, those software engineers, if their job is to know how to code … I don’t think they will be broadly needed,” Shi said.
Journalism
AI is already making its way into newsrooms.Getty Images
The technology is off to a rocky start in the news-gathering business — CNET’s recent attempts (and subsequent corrections to its computer-generated stories) were preceded by the Guardian, which had GPT software write a piece in 2020 — with mixed results.
Still,there is one job the technology is already highly qualified for, according to Hegde.
“Copy editing is certainly something it does an extremely good job at. Summarizing, making an article concise and things of that nature, it certainly does a really good job,” he said, noting that ChatGPT is excellent at designing its own headlines.
One major shortcoming — salvation for reporters and copy editors, at least for now — is the tool’s inability to fact-check efficiently, he added.
“You can ask it to provide an essay, to produce a story with citations, but more often than not, the citations are just made up,” Hegde continued. “That’s a known failure of ChatGPT and honestly we do not know how to fix that.”
Graphic design
Graphic design jobs also face potentially becoming obsolete thanks to AI.Getty Images/iStockphoto
In 2021, ChatGPT developer OpenAI launched another tool, DALL-E, which can generate tailored images from user-generated prompts on command. Along with doppelgangers such as Craiyon, Stable Diffusion and Midjourney, the tool poses a threat to many in the graphic and creative design industries, according to Hegde.
“Before, you would ask a photographer or you would ask a graphic designer to make an image [for websites]. That’s something very, very plausibly automated by using technology similar to ChatGPT,” he continued.
Shi recently commanded DALL-E to make a cubist portrait of rabbits for Lunar New Year, which he said came out “just amazing.” But, although it captured the hard-lined, Picasso-derived painting style, Shi noticed that it was not successful with more nuanced techniques — exposing a current shortcoming in the tech.
“I also asked it to do Matisse-style. It was not as good,” he added.
Copyright issues are also being generated by image-based AI. Getty Images recently announced legal action against Stability AI — Stable Diffusion’s parent company — claiming that the program “unlawfully copied and processed millions of images protected by copyright.”
With main battle tanks from the U.S. and Germany now headed to Ukraine, Kyiv is now focusing on securing modern fighter jets from Western allies.
Yuriy Sak, an adviser to Ukraine’s Defense secretary, told The Hill that he was optimistic about receiving Western fighter jets such as the American F-16s, which Ukrainians have sought since early last year when Russia first invaded.
“Every type of weapon we request, we needed yesterday,” Sak said. “We will do everything possible to ensure Ukraine gets fourth-generation fighter jets as soon as possible.”
Reuters first reported the news that Ukraine was setting its sights on fighter jets.
Ukraine scored a major win on Wednesday with the announcement from President Biden that the U.S. will donate 31 American-made M1 Abrams main battle tanks to Kyiv.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Wednesday also said he would supply Ukraine with the country’s Leopard 2 tanks and approve the transfer of other Leopards from European allies.
The tanks were the latest hurdle for Western allies, who have cautiously approved more and more advanced weaponry for Kyiv, from HIMARS launchers to the Western battle tanks.
Western fighter jets and longer-range artillery units, which would allow Ukraine to strike Russian forces deeper in occupied territory, will likely be the next debate for NATO.
Ukraine currently uses Soviet-era fighter jets, including MiG-29s, which became a point of controversy last March when the U.S. declined to facilitate the transfer of MiGs from Poland to Kyiv.
So far, the U.S. has resisted sending the F-16 fighter jets and does not appear ready to announce their transfer anytime soon.
But national security adviser John Kirby told reporters on Wednesday the U.S. was “in constant discussions” with Ukraine and “we evolve those as the conditions change.”
“Can’t blame the Ukrainians for wanting more and more systems,” Kirby said. “It’s not the first time they’ve talked about fighter jets, but I don’t have any announcements to make on that front.”
The Treasury Department has delayed a House Republican request for information on Biden family financial transactions that may have been marked as suspicious, saying that it must first determine whether the disclosure of the records is consistent with “longstanding Executive Branch interests.”
Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), who chairs the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, requested suspicious activity reports related to the Biden family earlier this month in a letter to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen. Suspicious activity reports are generated by financial institutions when flagging suspicious financial moves and are submitted to the federal government.
But the Treasury at least temporarily rebuked Comer’s request, saying it needed to further communicate with the committee to figure out why it wants the information and what it plans on doing with it.
“It is important that a requesting committee specify in writing its purpose in seeking to obtain the requested information and the use it intends to make of it so that the Department can make a determination as to whether the disclosure is appropriate and consistent with longstanding Executive Branch interests, including the protection of ongoing law enforcement investigations,” the department said in the letter to Comer on Wednesday.
Comer blasted the Treasury’s decision to shield the records, saying it was a coordinated effort by the Biden administration to hide information about the president’s family.
“This coordinated effort by the Biden Administration to hide information about President Biden and his family’s shady business schemes is alarming and raises many questions,” Comer said in a statement after the letter was released. “We will continue to press for access to suspicious activity reports generated for the Biden family and their associates, and will use the power of the gavel to get them if needed.”
The Oversight Committee’s investigation is just one of a number of probes that House Republicans have launched into President Biden and his family.
