An expanded Commerce department? Pension fund investments? Drone police? What Philly’s 2023 mayoral candidates say about tech and business policies

Case in point: ChatGPT.

Jeff Brown knows what the seemingly omnipresent AI chat tool is because his sons showed it to him, he said during WURD’s innovation-focused mayoral forum on Tuesday at the University City Science Center. Helen Gym said she was obsessed with reading about it. But neither have actually have used it.

Rebecca Rhynhart and Cherelle Parker admitted they didn’t even know what the AI tool was.

How many Philadelphia mayoral candidates have used ChatGPT themselves?

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Per @onwurd forum @PhillyTechWeek #ptw23 pic.twitter.com/JKcZa45Arh

— Technical.ly (@Technical_ly) May 9, 2023

The forum, held during Philly Tech Week 2023 presented by Comcast invited mayoral candidates to speak about their would-be technology and business policies ahead of the primary election on May 16. Democrats Brown, Gym, Rhynhart and Parker were joined by Amen Brown, James DeLeon, Allan Domb and Warren Bloom, plus Republican David Oh, with Delscia Gray as the only candidate missing.

Eight years ago, Technical.ly presented a similar forum during PTW15 for the mayoral race at the time. That event covered topics such as open data and resources for tech startups. The 2023 forum continued the conversation about those topics, but also asked questions about AI, drones, and investments in Black and brown businesses.

The 90-minute event covered a lot of ground, including some topics Technical.ly asked the candidates about in our own survey last month (though notably, only four candidates responded to it: Rhynhart, Brown, Oh and DeLeon). Here are some of the most noteworthy things each candidate said.

Rebecca Rhynhart

Rhynhart wants the City of Philadelphia to fund a minority business accelerator.

“As mayor, I will put equity into Black-owned business,” the former city controller said. “We need to help Black-owned businesses grow, and equity is an important piece of that puzzle in terms of making it happen.”

She said as mayor, she would advocate to protect people’s data and information at the state and federal level, and hold tech companies accountable at the city government level.

“The City actually has data on every person that touches the city system, and this isn’t talked about a lot,” Rhynhart said. “But as mayor, I will make sure that we beef up the security of that data to make sure that that cannot be stolen or cannot be accessed through cybersecurity.”

(Reminder: Cyber attacks have shut down major city systems in places like Baltimore.)

Jeff Brown

Brown noted his history of supporting Black-owned businesses, noting that he has invested in WURD Radio and supported the PA 30 Day Fund.

The grocery store magnate said he thinks schools should teach business basics to spark interest in business early on, and to ensure students are familiar with terms such as equity and venture capital. He also said STEM education should be expanded in schools and that the City should have a scholarship fund for young people to attend college in Philadelphia, and use a social equity fund to help these students create startups.

Also in his pitch: The City should offer grants for technical assistance and business advice.

“I think a lot of young businesses need that help from more seasoned people, and two, the city should directly invest in social private equity. That would make a big difference, set the example,” he said. “The City should be investors in it, and the deal is, it has to be dedicated to Black or brown entrepreneurs if you want our capital, and we should use that to help get more unexpanded, social equity and venture community here where I think it is starting to bloom. But it’s slow and we can accelerate it.”

(Check out where the City of Philadelphia currently invests here.)

David Oh

During a discussion about the role of artificial intelligence, Oh said the City should embrace AI or risk being left behind other cities and countries. The former City Council member does not think AI will replace the need for human interaction, providing an example in healthcare.

“With big data and AI, you can predict that someone is going to have a health emergency, you can solve that before it happens,” he said. “Those are the things that AI can do. What it can’t do is it can’t put its arms around you. It can’t talk to you. It can’t embrace you. It can’t give you the human contact.”

(Here’s how at least one Pennsylvania tech exec is thinking about the use of AI in healthcare settings.)

Cherelle Parker

Parker said city government needs to be concerned about cybersecurity and make that a priority.

During a question related to support for Black and brown businesses, the former City Council member said she would support the Innovate Capital Growth Fund from The Enterprise Center. Parker gave the example of Black and brown business owners who don’t have generational wealth taking on debt to try and grow their business.

“You do need private equity. You need hedge fund folks to invest in you, but to not try to take 51% of ownership of your business,” she said. “Make the investment, but allow you to keep ownership.”

If elected, Parked said she would also appoint a deputy mayor for minority business growth.

(Here’s more on the Innovate Capital Growth Fund.)

Amen Brown

Brown discussed ways technology can be used to support the police force by incorporating gunshot detection technology, surveillance cameras and drones. However, he said, using surveillance cameras requires input from the communities they are in and awareness in the community.

Brown said as a member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, he introduced legislation in Harrisburg that lays out grants to introduce drone technology into police forces.

(Councilmember at-large candidate Jalon Alexander is advocating for drone use in policing, too.)

James DeLeon

DeLeon referenced his time as an intelligence officer and said he would prioritize protecting City data. He gave an example of people using social media on government computers during his time as a judge, which opened up the computers to being hacked.

“So what we did is … none of the employees of the court system could use the court system computers for social media,” he said. “That’s something that we have to look at as far as in the city government as well — whether or not you can use social media while you’re at your job on a work computer.”

(Back in June 2019, Philly’s Courts website was shut down by malware.)

Helen Gym

Gym made it clear that she does not view surveillance cameras as a real solution to crime and violence in Philadelphia, and said she would instead focus on preventative measures.

“I want to make sure that we have comprehensive reviews, that data privacy laws are continually strengthened, reviewed, and that any kinds of breaks and data privacy are immediately addressed with,” the former City Council member said. “I’m just very clear that my interest is on prevention of crime. … I’m very careful about Big Tech. I don’t think Big Tech can regulate itself.”

She said the City is underinvesting in Black and brown-owned businesses, and that more purposeful action should be taken.

“I believe that our Commerce Department is one quarter of 1% of the City’s budget and I feel like it occupies that much amount of space in our heads,” she said. “We are not geared towards opportunity, and so our Commerce Department needs to dramatically expand to serve entrepreneurs, small investors.”

(Here’s the breakdown of the proposed Fiscal Year 2023 City budget, which funds the Department of Commerce with $13.3 million, or about 0.24% of the overall $5.6 million.)

Allan Domb

Allan Domb said he would implement technology, entrepreneurship and financial literacy education for students in K-12 schools. The former City Council member said he has experience with tech education, referencing work with Coded by Kids’ Sylvester Mobley to raise money and support high schoolers learning to code.

He also said the City needs to scale up Black and brown businesses, suggesting the City look at pension funds to invest in them. He also said he would support The Enterprise Center’s Innovate Capital Growth Fund.

“We should be intentional,” Domb said. “Look at our pension funds and see how we can invest.”

(Check out this episode from Technical.ly’s 2020 podcast Off the Sidelines on making pension investments, university endowments and other forms of private market business investing more equitable.)

Warren Bloom

Bloom said he is the only candidate who would appoint young adults to his cabinet. One reason why would be to address social media issues.

He also said the City should create incentives to attract Black and brown businesses and get them to stay in Philly, such as offering land to entrepreneurs to establish themselves.

(Here’s a look at Philly Rise, a recently launched training program for Black and brown real estate developers.)

Sarah Huffman is a 2022-2024 corps member for Report for America, an initiative of The Groundtruth Project that pairs young journalists with local newsrooms. This position is supported by the Lenfest Institute for Journalism.