Prof. Emily M. Bender(she/her)There's a lot that's alarming in this article, but perhaps the most alarming part is the NYC spokesperson assering that the problem can be fixed via upgrades:
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https://www.thecity.nyc/2024/03/29/ai-chat-false-information-small-business/
It seems to bear repeating: chatbots based on large language models are designed to *make shit up*. This isn't a fixable bug. It's a fundamental mismatch between tech and task.
Also, it's worth noting that RAG (retrieval augmented generation) doesn't fix the problem. See those nice links into NYC web pages? Not stopping the system from *making shit up*. (Second column is chatbot response, third is journalist's report on the actual facts.)
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soc@emilymbender What is "count tips toward minimum wage requirements" if not "take a cut of your worker's tips"?
Perhaps the real fault of the bot is that it hasn't been exposed to years of corporate propaganda teaching it that the current practice is benign and totally unobjectionable?
Ergative AbsolutiveMin wage in NYC is $15 an hour. If employees are tipped, employers can pay them $10.35 an hour and assume that the tips make up the deficit. So the employer can make $4.65 an hour in saved wages, which is taking effectively a 'cut' of the tips, yes.
However,taking a 'cut of the tips' more typically means something like 'Employer gets X% of tips'. So if an employee makes $100 in tips during a dinner hour, the employer cannot legally take, say, 10% ($10) of it.
Also, if an emplyee does not make minimum wage from tips, the employer must make it up. So if an employee only makes, say, $3.00 in tips, not only is the employer not entitled to 10% of it, they must actually shell out an addition $1.65 to make up the employee's pay to the full minimum wage of $15 per hour.
(source: https://dol.ny.gov/minimum-wage-0)
And anyway, allowing the tips to count towards minimum wage is only for hospitality workers. Employers can't touch tips otherwise.
