Large-scale artificial intelligence companies will have to register to a New York State portal beginning in November — and report critical safety incidents within 72 hours, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced Monday.
Hochul and Attorney General Tish James touted the next steps to implementing the RAISE act – a sweeping package of legislation that takes an aggressive approach to regulating AI in the state – at a press conference in New York City Monday.
“We’ll look closely at additional ways to build on the RAISE Act and strengthen our AI laws,” Hochul said, claiming her administration wouldn’t take precautions like kill switches off the table.
“We may even explore safeguards like AI kill switches if they’re deemed feasible and in the best interest of our state.”
Beginning in November, AI developers with annual revenues exceeding $500 million will have to register with the state’s Department of Financial Services – and comply with strict transparency rules – such as reporting critical safety incidents to the government within 72 hours.
Hochul’s team said the new wave of regulations come as President Trump downplays the public’s increased fear around potential dangers associated with the technology.
“Donald Trump and Washington Republicans may be standing still as AI grows more unpredictable, but New York will not,” Hochul said in a statement following the announcement.
“When companies are building some of the most powerful technology in the world, people deserve to know what they’re doing to keep it safe, and those companies should be held accountable when things go wrong.“
Public fears on the future of AI came to a head earlier this month — when a former Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon went on an online rant claiming, “the people building AI earnestly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade.”
Trump called the fear-mongering “a hoax” — and appeared to double down on his plans to advance the technology just one hour after Hochul’s Monday announcement.
“I’m not going to stifle growth, or something that will be bigger than the Industrial Revolution, or the Internet, itself,” the president wrote in a post to Truth Social.
“We will be careful, and that’s why we have the Department of Justice, and other Law Enforcement bodies, that will rein things in if we have to, but I will only encourage AI or, SI (SUPER INTELLIGENCE)!” he said.
Hochul initially signed the RAISE Act into law in December of last year, amending it in March to closely match the AI framework laws in California.
In July, Hochul also announced the first-in-the-nation moratorium on AI data centers consuming over 50 megawatts of electricity for at least one-year.
“I think there’s a lot of threats associated with the hyperscale data centers and that’s why we took on this issue boldly,” she said.
