The 311 app has AI now. It kinda sucks

The last time I was forced to use AI was through an unexpected source: 311. It  started shortly after midnight a few weeks ago with with an unexpected noise ringing through the apartment, ripping me out of fresh sleep: the doorbell. 

There’s no good reason for your apartment doorbell to be ringing at midnight, so immediately images of fear and doom flooded my groggy brain. On the other side of the door were several of my neighbors, bringing a problem that would eventually force me to interact with 311’s new AI feature, and down a frustrating path in one of the city’s most essential services. 

That night, a sulphuric, foul smell had filled the building, and awoken all eight units. Shortly, everyone stood in the hallway in robes and sweatpants waiting for the fire department. They inspected and had good news/bad news: there was no gas leak, as we had feared. The culprit, they said, while packing up and leaving, was actually a sewer backup. The fire department pulled away; we were left with the smell and no clear idea of whose responsibility it was to get rid of it. 

Frazzled and tired, one of the neighbors called our management company and I said I would file a 311 complaint as well, and fired up the 311 app on my phone. 

Therein I entered a maze: The 311 phone app immediately prompts you to use its AI-enabled “Smart Search” (indicated, as always, with the ✨ emoji). Seeing no other option, I typed “sewer backup” into the AI search bar, and watched the search icon churn and think. Whatever fresh water it guzzled in a data center went to waste: it did not think of the right answer.