Happy Thursday in New York City, where Comptroller Mark Levine has some words of comfort for people worrying about the future of their jobs in the AI economy: there’s only a 50% chance you’re screwed.
Levine, alongside a team of economists, released a detailed report yesterday outlining the possible outcomes of AI proliferation on the NYC economy and their relative probabilities. The most likely scenario at 35%, Levine writes, is a so-called “AI-Empowered Economy” in which AI boosts efficiency without replacing jobs. He also posits a 15% chance for a “Productivity Boon,” in which AI drives faster growth and higher wages.
The other possibilities are not so rosy. Coming in at 25% is the “AI Falls Flat” scenario, as the AI boom fails to deliver and markets fall. The scariest outcome, at 20%, is “Job Replacement” and a vast upturn in unemployment. Then there’s a 5% chance for an “AI Shockwave,” in which white-collar jobs bear the brunt of the labor-market chaos.
With a 50% total chance for economic downturn and widespread job loss, Levine claims, the city needs to prepare now by increasing its cash reserves. New York City’s so-called “rainy day fund,” which drew headlines earlier this month when Mamdani laid out a proposal to plug the city’s deficit by, in part, drawing nearly $1 billion from the fund, currently sits at around $8 billion. Although that number has remained steady for years, it has reduced over time as a percentage of overall spending.
In the report, Levine proposes raising the fund to 16% of the city’s overall tax revenue, nearly twice its current level, which Levine estimates would be enough to safeguard against the worst of the AI scenarios.
“New York City more than anywhere else in the world is deeply intertwined with the future of AI as the capital of white collar work, a key financier of AI and a city government that is technologically backwards and brittle,” Levine said at a press briefing yesterday.
“I feel like we have a freight train coming down the tracks.”
The new summer NYC Ferry schedule, which kicked off Monday, will bring the most ferry service in the city’s history, providing more frequent connections and reservable seats on beach-bound trips.
Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso and City Councilmember Lincoln Restler are hosting a rally next week to support a plan to turn a portion of Columbus Park near Borough Hall from a parking lot into parkland.
Students interested in civics and government are invited to apply for summer internships at Assemblymember William Colton’s District Office.
A bus caught on fire underneath the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway on Wednesday night. Firefighters quickly extinguished the blaze.
Skincare brand The Ordinary announced that they’re stepping in for the MTA and running a free, direct bus between Domino Park in Williamsburg and Prospect Park near Grand Army Plaza from May 26 through June 9.
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Our World In Photos
Photo: Adam Gray/AP
HARLEM — Bodyguard — ‘wait … I need to have a look at that trophy … oh well’: New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani is handed a replica World Cup Trophy by Ezequiel Cecchi, 49, after making a World Cup soccer tournament announcement at Harlem Tavern, Thursday, May 21, 2026 in New York.
For more pictures like this, see Our World in Photos.
The price we pay when newspapers disappear
When a local newspaper shuts down, the losses are obvious and mostly economic. Reporters, printers and delivery drivers lose their jobs. Advertising revenue that once supported a small local industry dries up.
But those are only the most visible costs. A newspaper is also a town’s watchdog. When it disappears, public life changes. Corruption rises, cities pay more to borrow money, and fewer people vote in local elections. Politics grows more polarized.
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By Jeff Koterba
For the Road
Meet the king of the Oval: Jeff Saunders is truly the king of the famed Met Oval, and perhaps for all of youth soccer in the city. As a player, he was a two-time First-Team All-American soccer player in college before playing overseas. After working at companies like MLB, Nike and ESPN, Saunders founded a sports consulting and sports data analytics company. And then he found the Metropolitan Oval, where he serves as the sporting director. In fact, Saunders said, the Oval is one of those rare places where the history of the game and the future of the game are happening at the same time. Learn more about the Oval.
Happy Birthday to Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen!
On this day in 1963, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “Stardust and ticker tape the likes of which ‘Gordo’ Cooper never saw in space will flood the sky above Broadway tomorrow when the free world’s number 1 astronaut is received by New York City.”
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