Tuesday, July 14, 2026
In today’s digest, Albany hits pause on new data centers, wash your produce a little more carefully, and new data on how people use generative AI. 🥬
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New York just hit the pause button on large new data centers. Governor Kathy Hochul signed an executive order pausing permits for new data centers of 50 megawatts or larger for up to a year while the state develops new environmental standards. 🖥️ (Axios)
The order states it will examine energy demand, water use, air quality, and require guidance on community benefits like infrastructure upgrades and local hiring.
Read Tech:NYC’s statement on the executive order here.
This summer’s hottest trend? Washing your produce. New York City has recorded 374 cases of cyclosporiasis since May 1 — roughly three times as many as this point last year — as officials investigate what’s causing the outbreak. 🥗 (Gothamist)
Health officials say the culprit is a parasite that can hitch a ride on fresh produce, though investigators still haven't identified the source.
Their advice: Thoroughly rinse fruits and vegetables under running water, sanitize prep surfaces, and cook food when possible.
The City Council is making a big splash by adding $1.5 million to expand free swim lessons from 6,000 to 9,000 public school second graders as part of a long-term goal to teach every NYC second grader to swim. 🏊 (The City Reporter)
Organizers say learning to swim is a life-saving skill, especially in a city almost entirely surrounded by water.
The biggest challenge is finding enough pools, with partners working to reopen underused facilities and make more space for lessons.
➕ One more thing: The Mayor’s COGE will live or die on modernizing New York’s civil service, write Youssef Kalad, a Tech:NYC Grid Fellow and investor, and Brendan Hellweg, co-founder of Holly. More here.
In other reading:
NYC piloting silent, electric batteries for food carts around Queens park (Gothamist)
Who would benefit from open primaries in New York? (New York Times)
Plan your summer at The Met (The Met)
Together with Markup AI 🤝
Somewhere between “we need more content” and “we need better content” is where most marketing teams live right now.
Markup AI is the layer that bridges them, checking every piece against your brand guidelines, voice, and AI search readiness signals, scoring it, and telling your team when it’s good enough to push play.
How Are People Really Using AI?
Recent reports from OpenAI and Anthropic offer a clearer picture of how people are using generative AI. Hint: It’s not one killer use case, but an increasingly versatile layer across work, learning, and daily life. 🤖
Moving beyond simple chatbot convos: Users are asking AI to produce finished work, delegate more complex tasks and, with Anthropic’s new Reflection feature, even examine their own AI habits.
🌎 The audience is broadening: More than half of active ChatGPT users now primarily use a language other than English, led by Spanish, Portuguese, and Arabic. Adoption has also grown fastest in Africa and Asia.
Usage deepens with time: Six months after joining ChatGPT, users sent 50% more messages per day than when they signed up, and also had tried twice as many distinct capabilities.
People want something tangible: Anthropic classified 93% of Claude conversations as producing an identifiable output.
Prompts asking for explanations were most common, followed by documents, reports, and guidance.
🗽 New Yorkers are heavy — and collaborative — users:
New York State ranks third in the nation in Claude usage relative to its working-age population.
About 53% of New York usage was classified as augmentation (collaborating with Claude) rather than automation (fully delegating to it), the third-highest augmentation share nationally.
In New York, 49.31% of Claude users turn to the chatbot for personal reasons, compared with 40.21% for work and 10.48% for coursework.
⏰ Claude’s use-case schedule mirrors daily life:
News requests peak around 7am, business correspondence around 10-11am, and recipe requests around 6pm.
On weekends, personal conversations rise and entrepreneurship-related prompts become more common.
🤖 Delegation is increasing: Claude Code users give the AI far more autonomy than traditional chat users.
A blog or article takes a median 13 rounds of conversation in chat, but only one human prompt through Claude Code.
Now AI has a screen-time dashboard: Anthropic’s new Reflection beta lets users review one, three, six, or 12 months of Claude usage, offers quiet hours and break reminders, and even encourages people to consider when a task is better left to a human.
📈 The bottom line: AI adoption has become routine, and New York is routinely in the lead.
In other reading:
Five ways to use AI to sharpen your thinking (Fast Company)
How a second-grade teacher revived a beloved video game (New York Times)
Simulating everything, sort of: The promise and limits of world models (Ars Technica)
Welcome to our weekly jobs section, where we spotlight a selection of the NYC tech jobs from Tech:NYC’s Jobs Board — all recently posted. 🔥
Today, we’re highlighting a few product roles:
Product Management, Research — Anthropic ($305k-$385k / year): You’ll own the ideation and deployment of new models and products as Anthropic advances frontier, safe AI technology. You’ll work closely with their research teams to help productize credible applied research and identify high-potential use cases grounded in customer needs. Apply here.
Senior Product Manager, Core Experience — Spotify ($147,595-$210,850 / year + equity): You’ll define and drive product vision and strategy for conversational and AI-powered experiences that serve millions of Spotify listeners globally, while making strategic trade-offs that balance customer needs, business impact, and technical opportunities. Apply here.
Product Lead, People Analytics — Oscar Health ($101,844-$133,670 / year): You’ll serve as the product owner and technical architect for their reporting ecosystem, ensuring people data is accurate, automated, and scalable. You’ll also design, configure, test, and deploy dashboards tailored to the needs of stakeholders across the People team and company. Apply here.
➕ Tech:NYC is hiring! We’re looking for a Director of Policy to play a central role in developing and advancing Tech:NYC’s policy agenda, and a Decoded Futures Communications Consultant to help tell some of the most consequential stories of our time at the epicenter of AI for Impact. More details here.
Hadrius, an NYC-based fintech compliance software startup, raised $22 million in Series A funding. CRV led the round, joined by Y Combinator.
Instalily AI, an NYC-based maker of an AI forward deployed engineer, raised a $60 million Series B led by Energize Capital. Insight Partners, Home Depot Ventures and United Rentals joined.
SONATA, an NYC, SF, and LA-based membership-based preventive-care provider, raised $7 million in funding from Lux Capital, BoxGroup, Sunflower Capital, and others.
July 15: Pitch and Run – Central Park, for founders to connect with angels and VCs without the pressure of a pitch meeting and to allow founders and startup employees to connect. Register here.
July 16: The Make It in Brooklyn Renewable Energy Pitch Contest, where selected founders compete before judges for prize money and market support, while attendees network and learn about the future of clean energy. Register here.
July 16: Founders Basketball New York City, a growing community of startup founders and investors who love to connect over business and buckets. Register here.
July 19: Guava in the Park – Prospect Park Founder Meetup, where you can bring a friend, a bottle, or something to share. No agenda, just good people and good weather. Register here.
July 20: Women in Tech – Yoga + Networking, a gathering of female founders and women in tech for a relaxing afternoon. One hour of yoga, then one hour of networking. Register here.
July 21: Pitch Like a Lawyer: Build a Winning Case for Investors, an interactive workshop, led by a former U.S. Department of Justice trial attorney, where you’ll learn how to build a case for your startup using the same frameworks lawyers use to prepare a case for trial. Register here.
July 21: AI for Small Business: Practical Ways to Compete in a Changing Market, a free virtual workshop from Fordham University’s AI Business Hub and Manhattan Chamber of Commerce designed for small business owners and entrepreneurs looking to put AI to work safely and effectively. Register here.
July 21-22: DUMBO Office Open Houses, where you can tour new prebuilt workspaces designed for growing startups and teams in a neighborhood home to more than 500 tech, creative, and professional firms. Plus, rooftop views and refreshments. Register here.
July 22: Common Table NYC Book Club, a book club dinner just for founders (the first book will be Sally Rooney’s Intermezzo). Register here.
July 23: Ship & Drink @ Microsoft, an evening of vibe coding, drinks, and good people. Register here.
July 23: July Happy Hour with Fellow Designers, an opportunity for designers, design enthusiasts, design students, and design adjacent individuals to network. Register here.
July 24: After Hours: NYC Tech Social at Maxwell Tribeca, where professionals across tech and fast-growing startups can step away from work, meet beyond their usual circles, and enjoy a great night out together IRL. Register here.
August 22: NYC Founders Club Founder River Float Retreat, a full-day retreat on the Delaware River for early- to growth-stage founders — transportation, meals, and all supplies included. Register here.
September 16: Primary’s NYC Tech Summit, an annual gathering for builders, backers, and operators shaping the future. Apply to attend here.
October 13-15: EdTech Week, where the brightest minds and the boldest innovators gather in a technological playground dedicated to transforming education. Register before August 31 for early bird tickets here.
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