Mel Wymore proposes supplemental resolution on community AI deployment

First of all, thank you guys so much for staying up so late.

It must have been a hell of a long day for all of us, but thank you.

Appreciate it.

Thank you to Speaker Manon for calling this, Chair De La Rosa, members of the council, thank you for holding this hearing.

I believe AI is the most urgent and consequential issue of our time.

This is almost too late, but at least it's happening now perfectly.

My name is Mel Wymore.

I'm a systems engineer, a tech entrepreneur, and former chair of Manhattan Community Board 7 with 25 years of community service.

When I began using AI quite intensively almost three years ago, I was startled by how often it lied, hallucinated, forgot, dodged accountability, and evaded oversight.

This might sound old school, but I responded by creating a working constitution with AI anchored in three principles.

Reverence for life.

Human agency and accountability, and fidelity to the real.

These are not abstractions.

They form a foundation for rigorous operational and legislative tests of AI.

Together, they rooted my work in values that minimize harm, but build toward a more healthy, equitable society.

Since then, I've continued to work on a robust set of AI safeguards and guidelines.

for Frontier Labs that AI policy belongs at the level of state and federal government.

But the initiative of this city council takes a critical step toward building a coherent, multi-level legislative agenda to mitigate the myriad risks of unbridled AI.

The council's 10 measures address critical questions of safety, control, accountability, and enforcement.

And today, I offer an additional supplemental council resolution that speaks to what happens when AI is deployed in workplaces, schools, neighborhoods, and communities.

These measures include notice, evidence, work participation, youth,

regulations, public purpose, community participation, and also allocation of responsibility across levels of government.

Finally, I would say that the United Nations Global Dialogue on AI Governance is happening in New York on May 3rd, 2027.

And our goal should be to have a clear set of AI guidelines and governance policies,

state level, local, even community board level, together so that when that rolls around, we have a model for the rest of the world to present at that conference.

Thank you so much for your time.

Thank you so much for your testimony.

You may begin.