Should a serious boiler accident occur on one of New York\u2019s last steam trains, state law requires operators to notify the Department of Transportation as promptly as possible, but only by phone \u2014 or telegram.<\/p>\n
Organizations looking to amend their charitable bingo licenses must remember to print out three copies of their application to the Gaming Commission. Those hoping to appeal Department of Conservation findings on wetlands will need six.<\/p>\n
And despite the widespread access to email, there are more than 350 instances where the law requires documents to be transmitted via fax or the United States Postal Service.<\/p>\n
These are just a few of the outdated and burdensome requirements flagged in a new artificial intelligence project ordered up by Gov. Kathy Hochul.<\/p>\n
The effort, called Regulatory Reset, will deploy A.I. to comb though roughly 18 million words of codified statute to find references to fees; signature or notary requirements; fax, mail, telegraph and other outdated technologies; as well as task forces, councils and mandatory reports.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have laws on the books that require a special permit for a woman to work later hours,\u201d Ms. Hochul said in an interview. \u201cNo wonder people get so frustrated. So I\u2019m getting rid of that.\u201d<\/p>\n
In an executive order that will be signed on Wednesday, Ms. Hochul will call for state agencies to modernize or eliminate obsolete regulations. As part of the effort, the state already solicited suggestions from agencies and the public and collected more than 4,000 submissions \u2014 many of which mention the absurdity of maintaining a fax machine in 2026.<\/p>\n
The order calls for state agencies to review the examples found by the A.I. tools, created in collaboration with the civic tech organization Recoding America and Stanford University, to see what rules can be eliminated or modified.<\/p>\n
\u201cA.I. is not the decision maker,\u201d the governor said. \u201cEvery single action we take will be proposed and vetted by human experts across state government.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s an idea that Ms. Hochul says has been percolating since her days as Erie County clerk \u2014 when she saw firsthand how onerous requirements and unnecessary fees frustrated people trying to go about their daily lives.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople have lost confidence in their state to be able to deliver the way they want it to,\u201d Ms. Hochul said in an interview on Tuesday. \u201cMy philosophy is government should be on your side, not on your back.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have to shake it all up \u2014 be creative, and rethink government on a daily basis,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n