AI tools flood Albuquerque with public‑records requests

This is a small but telling example of what happens when cheap digital labor hits slow analog institutions. AI tools that can scrape news stories, auto‑draft legal language and mass‑file records requests effectively give any motivated actor—residents, activists, businesses or even bots—the ability to bombard city systems at almost zero marginal cost. Albuquerque’s experience suggests that long before AGI shows up, governments will feel the strain of many semi‑autonomous agents relentlessly exercising procedural rights at machine speed.

From an AGI perspective, this kind of pressure test is significant. Future AI systems that can coordinate complex campaigns across jurisdictions could overwhelm public‑records units, FOIA offices and regulatory dockets, tilting power toward the best‑tooled actors. How municipalities adapt—through rate‑limiting, identity checks, AI triage on their side, or redesigned statutes—will shape whether AI becomes a tool for accountability or a denial‑of‑service vector against public infrastructure.