If you attended Epicenter’s AI community summit at the Museum of the Moving Image last month, you’ll remember Anthony Shorris and his framework around the role of tech in civic life.
“A door is opening and is letting the future in,” said Shorris, who has spent more than 40 years in government or government-adjacent positions.
This week, Mayor Zohran Mamdani appointed Shorris to lead the New York City Economic Development Corporation (EDC). The announcement, made at a City Hall press conference, also named former FTC Chair Lina Khan as EDC board chair.
Shorris served as a budget official under former Mayor Ed Koch, later as first deputy mayor under Bill de Blasio, and as executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey from 2007 to 2008. He was most recently a partner at management consulting firm McKinsey & Company.
At Epicenter’s AI community summit, held in Astoria, Shorris joined journalists, civic and tech leaders in discussing how AI is reshaping local news and everyday life. He noted that the conversation shouldn’t be whether or not the technology should be used, but that it should be used responsibly.
Shorris also made a case for local news as a fix for a splintered information ecosystem. Riffing on Fiorello La Guardia’s line that there’s no Democratic or Republican way to pick up the garbage, he said there is “certainly no blue or red truth,” but that “the facts you get and the facts I get never seem to overlap.”
Local media, he argued, is where reality intrudes. No matter our politics, we see homeless people on the street, we pay when prices go up, we hurt when our kids can’t learn in school or find jobs. If AI helps journalists report truths people can see and feel in their own communities, Shorris said, “that’s the first step in restoring trust. And that’s the trust upon which the democracy survives or fails. That’s the power you have and why we need all of you so much today.”
