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This week in NYC’s #CivicTech Week 11 of 2026 School of Data Main stage Preview! Data Docs, ODW’s film fest! Proposed AI chatbot regulation. Our eviction crisis’ hard numbers. OTI’s Digital Equity Resource Survey. City tech jobs and events beyond Open Data Week!

This week in NYC’s #CivicTech – March 13, 2026

Noel Hidalgo

Happy PI Day Weekend to our North American readers! Orthodox PI Day observers, yours comes at the end of the month. 😉

Our Joy is Heavy.

Many of you are feeling the weight of this moment. Anthropic’s Claude Cowork launched on the verge of the illegal war on Iran, and this week the Financial Times examined how Palantir and Anthropic’s AI tools are reshaping the “kill chain” — an unprecedented merger of megalomania, technology, and lethality. 

Between that and the City Council hearing on biometric data collection, it’s hard not to feel like we’re living in a dystopian novel. Also, good luck trying to get your ADHD drugs in NYC. I’ve been on a two-week journey trying to get a refill. So, to my fellow Star Trek fans, shouldn’t the Bell Riots have happened by now?

And yet — living with a toddler, the weight of the world dissolves into blanket forts and scooter rides around the park. This week brought a rare date night through the Bowery, ending at the New York Theatre Workshop for My Joy is Heavy.

The Bengsons’ show is a deeply personal musical memoir of pregnancy, loss, family, and joy. Rarely do artists transform grief and wonder into something you can feel in your chest. Their storytelling reminds us that joy doesn’t require the absence of darkness — it lives inside it.

I’m grateful for this city, this community, the values we set in 2013, and everyone who has joined us since. I am grateful for the wonderful colleagues I get to work with daily and the delightful opportunity to see you grow and celebrate your achievements.

Through joy and darkness, we move forward, together. That’s the meaning of pa’lante. That is excelsior, our state’s motto.

NYC’s TENTH Open Data Week is almost here!!

If you see Open Data Week advertised on LinkNYC kiosks, please take a photo and send it to us! This year will be larger than ever. Here are some exciting events to note!!

  • March 21 — Data Through Design opening reception (ticket required — it will sell out)
  • March 22 — First-ever “Data Docs” film fest at DCTV’s Firehouse.
  • Every weekday morning — Virtual coffee for organizers and attendees.
  • Daily in-person programming via CUNY at the Oculus, World Trade Center.
  • March 29 — Data Through Design closing session!

Browse all in-person events →

NYC School of Data is 15 days away!!

We’re closing Open Data Week with our 10th School of Data and our first-ever un-School of Data at CUNY Law School! We are excited to have Martha Norrick (Senior Fellow, Reinvent Albany) join us as the main stage and livestream host. Main stage highlights:

  • From connectivity to connection, transforming digital equity into action with Council Member Jennifer Gutiérrez and Paolo Balboa, NYC’s Chief Digital Equity Officer.
  • Building the Public Interest Tech Workforce with Council Member Julie Won and Jazzy Smith, BetaNYC’s Chief of Staff.
  • AI in Government: Opportunities for the Mamdani Administration, moderated by Genevieve Gaudet, Nava PBC.
  • Fireside chat on how 10 years of civic engagement through open data has changed New York!  

Thank you to the Robert Sterling Clark Foundation and all our sponsoring partners — Reinvent Albany, HaydenAI, Nava PBC, Cyvl, SVA, CUSP at NYU, Siegel Family Endowment, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and the NYC Council — for making our biggest year yet possible.

Make room for joy. See you soon.

— Noel Hidalgo

Support BetaNYC Today! 💗

Last year, the Civic Innovation Lab helped power 44 community-driven data projects and supported 3,430 New Yorkers applying to serve on their Community Boards.

That’s what community-powered civic tech looks like. If you believe New Yorkers deserve tools, training, and support that meet this moment, help us keep saying yes in 2026.

We’re working toward 200 sustaining donors to help sustain this work all year long. Join us today: https://beta.nyc/donate

What’s New at BetaNYC? 🚀

Take a look back at what we built together in 2025. Our Impact Report highlights the projects, partnerships, and community-driven work that helped advance open data and public interest technology across New York. Explore the full report!

Upcoming Events with BetaNYC 🎊

Flyer for an upcoming event with the Common Ground, featuring images of four panelists and a moderator. Event details: Friday, March 20 2:45PM-3:45PM EST.
Square promotional graphic for Data Through Design’s 2026 exhibition, “echo{logies},” on a tan background. At the top is the DxD logo in black. In the center, the title “echo{logies}” appears in a black typeface surrounded by many overlapping contour-like circular line patterns. Below, black text reads: “March 21–April 5, 2026,” “BRIC House Gallery,” and “www.datathroughdesign.com.” At the bottom, the text “Presented with” appears next to the BRIC logo.
Dark navy promotional poster with neon-style city graphics. Large white text reads “CALLING ALL NEW YOKERS!” with icons and details: “March 22–29, 2026” and “opendataweek.nyc.” Logos for NYC OTI, BetaNYC, and Data Through Design appear above an “Open Data Week 2026” graphic, with “Powered by NYC Open Data” at the bottom.
Orange-to-peach gradient poster with bold dark blue text reading: “JOIN NYC’S PUBLIC INTEREST TECHNOLOGY COMMUNITY.” Next to the text is a gray interpreting logo that reads: “provided by SignNexus.” Below are icons and event details: Saturday, March 28 & Sunday, March 29, 2026; CUNY School of Law, Queens; www.schoolofdata.nyc. Logos at bottom: BetaNYC, NYC Open Data, and NYC Office of Technology & Innovation.

Election Corner 2026 🗳️

  • See how AI is landing on the ground in New York: this piece from THE CITY looks at how NYC small businesses and nonprofits are using AI for hiring, outreach, inventory, and operations, often becoming more efficient without eliminating jobs.
  • New York’s next move on chatbot regulation: Statescoop explains a New York state legislature bill that would ban chatbots from giving legal or medical advice and allow people to sue chatbot owners who violate the law. 

This Week’s Media Watchlist 🎥

See what the eviction crisis looks like in hard numbers: we partnered with the Right to Counsel NYC and JustFix to illustrate how deeply eviction is shaping life across New York, with more than 164,000 households sued and more than 14,000 evictions carried out statewide in 2025 alone.

Toolkit Spotlight 🛠️

  • Explore a new way to see NYC 311 data: Benjamin Niedermann’s LinkedIn post highlights their interactive visualization of millions of 311 complaints, designed to reveal neighborhood patterns without overwhelming the map.
  • Making city permitting easier to track: Permit Pulse offers a more accessible way to explore NYC permit activity by type and location.

Artificial Intelligence Roundup 🤖

  • A new AI policy debate emerges in New York: City & State covers state Sen. Andrew Gounardes’ proposal to pause the sale of AI chatbot-enabled toys for kids amid growing safety and privacy concerns.
  • A big-picture conversation about where AI is headed: Ezra Klein’s interview with Jack Clark, co-founder of Anthropic, explores the move from chatbots to agents and what that could mean for work, policy, and the economy. Catch the full transcript in The New York Times. (Paywall) 
  • The growing fight over AI transparency: Tech Policy Press argues that major AI companies are sidestepping training-data disclosure requirements while smaller open-source developers are proving more transparency is possible.
  • How Boston is testing AI inside government: this interview with Boston’s chief information officer examines Boston’s experiment with MCP, AI agents, and open data as a more controlled approach to public-sector AI.
  • A timely question about expertise in the AI era: Harvard Business Review asks whether AI has made it too easy to sound insightful, and why lived experience and real execution still matter.
  • What happens when AI gets license plates wrong: Business Insider examines how a camera made by the technology startup Flock Safety lead to wrongful stops, arrests, and harm. (Paywall)
  • Follow the path from Pokémon Go to delivery robots: this article explains how game-generated mapping data is helping robots navigate streets more accurately.
  • AI’s role in conflict: Tech Policy Press argues that today’s LLMs are already making violence easier to plan, justify, and distance from human accountability.

Data Privacy Watch 🔐

  • Take a closer look at the real cost of data brokers: this article from The Markup explains how a congressional investigation tied just four major data-broker breaches to more than $20 billion in identity-theft losses.
  • What “secure” email really means in practice: this story shows how Proton Mail payment data, shared through Swiss authorities, helped the FBI identify an allegedly anonymous Stop Cop City account. (Paywall)
  • The debate over age verification and privacy: this piece argues that Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA)-style proposals could erode online anonymity and expand surveillance, censorship, and risks for vulnerable users. (Paywall)

Jobs Alert and Announcements 💼 

Upcoming Events 📅

Note: All times are listed in ET

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Take care of each other, and have a great weekend!