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Hot take: I spent 19 days trying to get a straight answer out of my city's new AI permit review system and I still don't know if I need a license
Back in March my city here in Dayton rolled out this AI tool that's supposed to read your small business paperwork and tell you which permits you need. I run a little food cart, nothing crazy, just a smoker on wheels. I figured sure, let the robot save me a trip to the counter. Day one it says I need a mobile food license. Day four, after I upload the same PDF three times because it keeps rejecting the scan, it says I also need a fire inspection. Day nine it tells me the fire inspection is a mistake and to ignore it. Day fourteen I call the actual office and a woman named Darlene tells me the AI has been doing this to everybody. Day nineteen I finally get a human to look at my file and she says the system flagged my cart as a 'fixed structure' because of a keyword in my business name. Nineteen days, four different answers, and the only reason it got fixed is that Darlene felt bad for me. Here's my problem: nobody at the city can tell me if their AI is the official answer or not, so I have zero idea what I'm actually on the hook for legally. If a machine gives me permission and a human says different later, who eats that? Has anyone else dealt with their town using AI to hand out permits or licenses, and did you ever get a straight answer about which one counts?
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gray_morgan1d ago
Robot says yes, human says no, you get screwed either way.
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