Wednesday, October 8, 2025

October 08, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 9 minutes

Wednesday, October 8, 2025 

🤕 Earlier today, you received a Digest that featured yesterday’s Today in Tech segment. We fixed it! Here’s the Tech:NYC Digest the way it’s meant to be — with today’s Today in Tech.

  • In today’s digest, AI bubble vs boom, the Yankees beat the Blue Jays, and high school application season is underway! 🎓

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  • New York City’s high school application season is officially underway, giving families two months to navigate 700 programs across 400 schools. 🏫 (Chalkbeat)

    • Open houses at many schools are already full! Applications are due Dec. 3, with offers expected by Mar. 5, 2026.

  • New York City is expanding its LockerNYC pilot program to 70 total locations, aiming to reduce package theft and delivery truck congestion. 📦 (Supply Chain Dive)

    • The Department of Transportation will add 36 new locker sites across all five boroughs in the coming weeks.

    • Operated by GoLocker, the free public lockers accept deliveries from major carriers like UPS, FedEx, USPS, and DHL.

  • The Yankees notched a win on Tuesday night, beating the Blue Jays 9–6 in Game 3 of the AL Division Series. 🏟️ (AP News)

    • Aaron Judge went 3-for-4 with an intentional walk and scored three times, keeping New York alive to force a Game 4 in the Bronx.

In other reading:

  • Need child care in New York? The city’s teacher union wants to help you find your match (Gothamist)

  • Top spots for pumpkin picking in and around New York City (New York Family)

  • New York declares 14-day statewide burn ban — dry conditions push wildfire risk higher (Secret NYC)

The “AI Bubble”? Or Just the Next Big Boom?

Is the AI market overheating? Or simply heating up? Depends who you ask. 

Talk of an “AI bubble” is everywhere this fall, but history suggests that bubbles often mark the early stages of truly transformative revolutions, not their end. 🫧

What’s happening now:

  • Massive investment, massive ambition: Tech is going all-in on AI infrastructure. Meta, Microsoft, Oracle, and others are spending hundreds of billions to power the next wave of generative tools and cloud intelligence. (Axios)

  • Déjà vu all over again: Economists see parallels to past innovation cycles — from railroads to the internet — when capital flooded in fast, mistakes were made, and enduring industries emerged stronger. (Tech Brew)

  • Yes, valuations are high. But evidence shows AI is already reshaping productivity, from customer service and content creation to finance and healthcare.

🗽 Why NYC is watching closely: New York’s startup ecosystem — home to more than 2,000 AI companies, 35 AI unicorns, and 40,000 AI professionals — has a lot riding on how this cycle plays out. 

  • If the frenzy cools, we could see capital shift from experimental moonshots to sustainable, applied AI.

  • Fintech, media, and healthtech startups are already building AI products rooted in real-world needs.

  • City and state investments like Empire AI are ensuring New York leads in research, talent, and responsible innovation.

🔮 The big picture: Yes, there will be corrections — there always are. But even if valuations dip, the tech is already embedded across industries. 

  • The likely outcome? A smarter, more disciplined market that still drives growth for decades to come.

Bottom line: Whether this is a bubble or a boom, the AI era is here to stay. And New York is perfectly positioned to take the bubble and make a big ’ol bath out of it.

In other reading:

  • Zingage, a New York City-based AI-powered automation platform for home health care agencies, raised $12.5 million in seed funding. Bessemer Venture Partners led the round and was joined by TQ Ventures, South Park Commons, and others.

  • The NYU Tandon Future Labs Catalyst NYC program, a 6-month, equity free accelerator for Pre-Seed to Seed tech startups, combining the resources of NYU Tandon’s research, faculty, and student body, with the network effects of NYC’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. Apply by October 12 here.

  • Hu Capital is hosting their Innovation Week October 13-17. They close the week with a Pitch Competition and Afterparty, a live event where founders pitch their startups in front of judges and a live audience. Submit pitches here.

  • nextNYC’s Pre-Series A Offsite, where you can spend a day in Brooklyn learning from top Series A and seed investors, experienced startup CEOs, and fellow founders. Apply for the October 15 event here.

  • The second annual Buildings Tech Lab, a collaboration with the Department of Buildings to advance the application of new technology to transform the delivery of public services. Apply by October 24 here.

  • Company Ventures’ Grand Central Tech Residency’s spring 2026 cohort, a 12-month residency program for founders and teams looking to build in-person in NYC. Apply here.

  • The Bridge at Cornell Tech, a new workspace on the Cornell Tech campus, is officially open. Sign up for tour invites, events, and updates here.

  • Company Ventures is hosting AI Review events, a year-long conversation series on the current and future state of AI. Submit your AI-related event for consideration here.

  • Union Square Ventures’ “usvwork” — a casual coworking day once a month for founders and builders in NYC. Apply here.

  • New York City Economic Development Corporation is re-launching the Greenlight Innovation Fund, a Request for Proposals to provide City capital funding for the development of facilities in New York City that support the Green Economy, Life Sciences, Advanced Technology and Creative Industries. Submit your proposals here.

  • Zero Irving — the Union Square tech hub home to Civic Hall — is relaunching its Workforce Development Project Fund, which awards $200,000 annually for programs that expand tech access and economic mobility for underrepresented New Yorkers, especially those in Manhattan Community District 3 (Lower East Side, East Village, Chinatown). Submit your proposal here.

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