Katie Wilson is straying from her predecessor’s artificial intelligence ambitions and pausing the citywide rollout of Microsoft’s AI Copilot chatbot for city employees.
Before antilock brakes, you had to “pump” the brake pedal up and down with your foot in slippery conditions to prevent them from locking. Nowadays you can just slam them.
“Pump” seems like such an active, positive word. I’m so pumped. Pump the tyre. Pump up the jam.
The mayor should Slam the brakes, not Pump them.
Pump and Slam are both very active verbs. You cant do either passivly.
“Slows, halts or winds down” would be better, milder actions if thats what youre looking for.
I think it’s more the positive nature of “pump” that annoys me in this context.
People pumping stocks make them go up, not down.
Pumping something tends to be postivie, yeah. Pump up the jams, pump up tires, etc.
Stopping spending on pointless AI is pretty postive, so maybe thats why the writer chose it?
Before antilock brakes, you had to “pump” the brake pedal up and down with your foot in slippery conditions to prevent them from locking. Nowadays you can just slam them.