PORTLAND, OR — In a groundbreaking move hailed by city leaders as a “compassion-centered innovation,” Portland has officially replaced its overwhelmed 911 emergency response system with a calming AI assistant programmed to repeatedly say, “That must have been scary.” The change comes after years of public frustration over Portland’s notoriously slow—or entirely absent—911 response times. According to officials, the new system directly addresses those concerns by focusing less on “intervention”...