NEW YORK — An artificial intelligence company that has drawn scrutiny over its work in China — and reports substantial financial losses — set its sights on Eric Adams from the moment the Democrat was elected New York City mayor.
The firm, Remark Holdings, pushed its way into the administration with the help of a top adviser ensnared in multiple investigations.
That adviser — Timothy Pearson — insisted that New York City Fire Department officials meet with Las Vegas-based Remark at least four times earlier this year. The pitch, in part, was to replace fire guards with AI-powered technology. At the time, Pearson had a personal relationship with a consultant who worked for Remark, their social media accounts show.
FDNY officials, unsatisfied with Remark’s camera-based fire-detection software, declined to enter into a contract, according to a person involved with the matter. That person — and others who spoke with POLITICO for this article — were granted anonymity to freely discuss the sensitive situation, given the mayor’s recent indictment and federal agents’ seizure of Pearson’s phone in a mushrooming corruption probe.
Despite being rebuffed by fire officials, Remark’s technology has been tested in one of the city’s municipal shelters for migrants who have been arriving in droves over the past two-and-a-half years — a pilot program described by two people familiar with it and confirmed by Adams’ spokesperson Liz Garcia. In that facility, Remark’s AI software was supposed to observe feeds from the city’s security cameras and alert officials to fires, the person said.
Pearson, who is one of the highest-paid city employees at $257,374 a year, oversees contracts for the migrant shelters and attended Remark’s introductory meeting at the fire department’s headquarters.
Remark’s attempts to gain a foothold in Adams’ City Hall have never been reported. This account is based on 12 interviews and an analysis of hundreds of pages of records, including transcripts of the publicly traded company’s earnings calls, its presentations to government officials, messages between people involved in those pitches, consulting contracts, lobbying reports and the schedules of four city aides, which were obtained through the Freedom of Information Law.
Taken together, they reveal how involved Pearson has become in the inner workings of public safety agencies and firms looking to secure contracts with them. The materials reviewed by POLITICO also show the Adams administration’s openness to AI and other modern forms of technology, despite warnings from civil liberties groups like the Legal Aid Society, a public defender and civil rights organization.
“I have concerns about the security of data and the ability for it to be misused,” Legal Aid’s Jerome Greco said.“The more we rely on technology, the more we track everything everyone does and the more that data is collected, the higher the risk for abuses and the more significant those abuses can be.”
Greco is supervising attorney of Legal Aid’s Digital Forensics Unit, a division that handles electronic evidence for client cases and opines on constantly evolving surveillance data used in indictments. He said the Adams administration needs to fully vet companies and properly disclose how new tech works — something City Hall has fallen short on in the past.
A national security analyst and a prominent elected official have also raised concerns about Remark’s business in China, which has featured surveillance projects in cities and schools, as well as its potential ties to the Chinese government’s domestic spying infrastructure — allegations the company strongly rejected.
In addition, Remark gets at least some of its technology from an unnamed Chinese business, public filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission show — at a time when President Joe Biden’s administration is ramping up regulation of Chinese technology.
Remark’s CEO, Kai-Shing Tao, disputed any suggestion his company works with the Chinese government or poses a security risk for New York City. Remark’s AI software — particularly the type that detects fires — is designed to save lives and help officials better deploy resources, he told POLITICO.
“There are a lot of people out there who are trying to do good, and I think we are one of them,” Tao said in an interview. “We think we can provide a lot of value from an efficiency standpoint.”
Garcia, the mayoral spokesperson, declined to provide a statement or answer questions about the city’s work with Remark, its interest in using new technology for public safety purposes and Pearson’s relationship with the Remark consultant. Garcia said Mayor Adams has repeatedly told staff they should comply with the city’s ethics laws.
Pearson did not respond to a request for comment.
POLITICO’s investigation into Remark’s relationship with City Hall began months before Adams was indicted last week and before federal agents raided the mayor’s Gracie Mansion residence and the homes of his top aides. As part of their probes, federal agents also seized Pearson’s electronic devices in early September. There is no evidence they are looking into Remark and its effort to get city business as they are reportedly surveying the city’s vast procurement landscape — including contracts with minority and women-owned business enterprises, or M/WBEs — and the role of Pearson and other top advisers in those contracts.
The investigation that has ensnared Pearson appears separate from criminal charges unveiled against Adams last week, alleging the mayor accepted illegal contributions and luxury travel perks from Turkish officials and business interests in exchange for expediting the opening of the Turkish consulate building in Midtown. The mayor pleaded not guilty to the charges.
A foot in the door
Before Adams even assumed the mayoralty, Remark showed an interest in him.
When Covid hit in 2020, it was hired to install a camera-based temperature check system at Zero Bond, where the mayor is a regular. The following year, a representative from Remark was on hand to witness Adams’ election night victory speech at the tony nightclub.
“#NYCMayor giving us hope,” the company posted on X with a video of Adams addressing the crowd.
Shortly thereafter, the firm began angling for work with his administration.
In early 2022, after Adams took office, Remark hired prominent New York-based lobbying firm Moonshot Strategies to help Tao expand his reach into the untapped New York City market.
Over the course of six months, Moonshot secured meetings with several top aides, including: Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Phil Banks and his staff, then-mayoral chief of staff Frank Carone and the executive directors of the Mayor’s Office of Innovation and Emerging Markets, according to lobbying records and public schedules.
Several weeks after Tao had a June 14 face-to-face with Carone in his City Hall office, the two met again at a restaurant in South Korea, where Carone was traveling on official city business, according to two people familiar with the matter.
During one of those sit-downs — which occurred when subway crime was a top concern for New Yorkers — Remark made a pitch to install its cameras in the transit system, according to someone familiar with the matter who was granted anonymity to freely discuss a private meeting.
That proposal was narrowly tailored. But Remark claims it can do much more.
The firm has boasted its AI software can track individuals using facial recognition and security camera footage. It can purportedly identify people loitering, fighting or trespassing and can pinpoint someone who has fallen — all of which it frames as potential public safety concerns. And Remark’s technology, according to prospectuses posted to its website, can also count crowds and track vehicles by scanning their license plates.
After six months, Moonshot’s contract with Remark was terminated and the AI firm hired Jason Goldman — the former City Council chief of staff who works with Carone’s government relations firm, Oaktree Solutions. Remark tapped Goldman to lobby the mayor — a self-avowed technology geek — and other administration officials.
In July, Remark participated in a virtual meeting with Banks, Carone and the mayor, according to Banks and Carone’s schedules, which described the purpose of the meeting as demonstrating how AI software could be overlaid on the city’s existing security infrastructure.
In February 2023, Remark and Goldman parted ways. By that point, the company had snagged four meetings with city officials, according to public schedules, but had not landed a contract.
A step ahead
After a year of getting nowhere with well-connected lobbyists, Remark began to find some success.
On May 5, 2023, the company was among a number of organizations attending a “summit on intelligent automation in government” hosted by the city’s Office of Technology and Innovation at Gracie Mansion — the mayor’s official residence — according to a person with knowledge of the event.
That same month, the AI company inked a $120,000 contract with Ikkin & Company, public records show. The M/WBE-certified consulting firm — which advertises itself as working in government, technology, public safety, sports and entertainment — is led by LaTrisha Winston, who also goes by Nikki.
Winston and Pearson have a personal relationship, according to a review of their publicly available social media accounts and two people who know them and were granted anonymity to speak about their ties.
This past February, Winston wrote a Valentine’s Day note on Instagram and tagged Pearson. The two have been pictured traveling together as recently as this month and were among the hosts of a 2019 fundraiser for Adams, according to an event invite reviewed by POLITICO.
Three of Winston’s personal and professional social media accounts were recently deactivated. In response to a request for comment, she referred POLITICO to a criminal defense attorney, Richard Levitt. On Wednesday, Levitt said Winston recently retained his services but declined to comment on her work for Remark Holdings or her relationship with Pearson.
Both Winston and Pearson were boosters of Remark.
Pearson’s schedule listed him attending a virtual meeting with Remark on Oct. 12, 2023.
The following spring, he began urging officials at the FDNY to sit down with Remark to assess whether their AI technology would be of use to the department. On March 12, with Pearson in attendance, Remark presented its product to FDNY officials, according to Pearson’s schedule.
The officials were intrigued but opted not to pursue Remark due to unresolved concerns with its technology, the person involved with the matter said. Pearson urged the agency to meet with the AI firm again. After two more virtual pitches failed to change agency officials’ minds, Pearson turned his attention elsewhere and helped set up a live demonstration of Remark’s software at a migrant shelter in Brooklyn, the person said.
It was during that June meeting with officials from several city agencies that Remark showed off its fire prevention technology in the city-run facility, the person said.
Remark still has no contract with the Adams administration, according to a review of a public contracting database maintained by the New York City comptroller. But pilot projects — like the one confirmed by City Hall at the Brooklyn migrant facility — are rarely publicly documented. Two people familiar with that facility described Remark’s software being used at the site, though Garcia, the mayoral spokesperson, said Remark technology is no longer used at any city facility and that the firm did not receive any money for the pilot project.
That spring, Tao and Pearson were in direct contact as well. POLITICO observed them hobnobbing together at a bustling technology expo in an event space along Manhattan’s East River, where companies were pitching cutting-edge solutions to problems facing cities across the globe.
China connections
Remark has generated concerns from national security experts, particularly over its China-based subsidiary, KanKan AI.
In 2022, an analyst at a China-focused think tank told Protocol, a now-defunct news organization, that a KanKan AI project in a coastal Chinese city was likely part of the government’s broader domestic surveillance program. KanKan AI has also offered a product for schools that tracks pupils with facial recognition.
Tao said Remark’s projects have had nothing to do with either the Chinese government or the military.
“Instead, they are all safety oriented between helping the elderly and the youth, providing fire and smoke detection and detecting slip, trip and fall incidents,” Tao said via a text message.
The company has consistently hemorrhaged money.
It lost more than $5 million last quarter, contributing to an accumulated deficit of $436.7 million since its debut in 2007 on the NASDAQ stock exchange. In April, NASDAQ delisted Remark for failing to meet the minimum net income and annual meeting standards. Short sellers such as Wolfpack Research and J Capital Research have raised questions about claims Remark has made in its financial presentations — claims the firm refuted.
On earnings calls with investors, Tao has often alluded to future projects that will turn the company’s finances around, and has spoken of a long-term strategy of transitioning into the Western market and shrinking its footprint in China.
He has had some success: Remark’s AI has counted crowds for the Barclays Center and inked a weapons detection contract for Las Vegas public schools. In 2020, it sold a thermal imaging kit to the Las Vegas Police Department, according to an invoice obtained by POLITICO from Wolfpack Research.
During an August earnings call, Tao mentioned working in migrant shelters in an unnamed city.
“We have completed a successful [proof of concept] for the migrant centers in one of the largest sanctuary cities in the U.S., where we deployed our AI-powered facial recognition, fight warnings, fire and smoke detection as well as weapons-detection modules,” Tao said. “The success of this [proof of concept] has led to preparations to deploy our technology across multiple city agencies as we negotiate to close a contract also for the second half of 2024.”
It is unclear where Remark’s AI technology originates.
Tao told POLITICO all its products come from a research and development office in London.
But in its latest filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Remark stated it has purchased hardware and software from an unnamed Chinese company, and that a member of Remark’s senior leadership has a role in that unnamed company.
The U.S. government is increasingly wary of Chinese technology — especially when it overlaps with sensitive security data.
When U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) was asked about Remark’s AI partnership with his state’s Brightline high-speed rail project, he told Protocol: “The Chinese Communist Party is devoting significant resources to firms willing to help them develop the most invasive surveillance state in the world. Those same firms should not be allowed anywhere near critical infrastructure in America.”
Tao said Remark’s products comply with a European data security certification. More broadly, he pointed to partnerships with major tech firms like Microsoft and Oracle — the latter of which hosted Tao at the May technology expo where he was spotted with Pearson — as evidence of Remark’s legitimacy.
Other parts of Remark’s history appear incongruous with a multinational AI firm.
The company has gone through several permutations, including a health-focused website with Dr. Mehmet Oz of daytime television fame as well as ownership of Bikini.com, which sold women’s swimwear. Remark’s stock was heavily promoted by Barstool Sports’ David Portnoy. And the company’s board includes Hollywood director and producer Brett Ratner.
A video posted to Ratner’s Instagram earlier this month shows the media mogul behind the wheel of a car bopping to the sounds of Public Enemy alongside boxing legend Mike Tyson in the passenger seat. In the backseat, Tao can be seen in between rapid pans of the camera placidly pecking at his phone.
“Happy Belated Birthday to my bestie [Tao],” Ratner wrote. “This video is proof that Shing is always calm, cool and collected even when chaos ensues!”
Ry Rivard contributed to this report.
