Gov. Kathy Hochul and legislative leaders are at an apparent stalemate over a bill recently sent to her desk that would impose new safety regulations on major AI companies, according to sources familiar with negotiations. Hochul wants the law to more closely reflect a similar law recently signed in California, but lawmakers consider that too watered down to accept.\u00a0<\/p>\n
According to a draft chapter amendment shared with City & State, the governor\u2019s rebuttal to the Legislature consisted of a complete rewrite of the Responsible AI Safety and Education Act, also known as the RAISE Act. The proposal crosses out the entirety of the bill passed by the Legislature and replaces it with new language taken nearly verbatim from California SB53, which is more favorable to the tech industry. The American Prospect first reported<\/a> the proposed changes. But bill sponsors state Sen. Andrew Gounardes and Assembly Member Alex Bores had explicitly wanted to enact a law stronger than that on the West Coast, which also underwent changes<\/a> at the apparent behest of Big Tech.<\/p>\n According to three sources with knowledge of negotiations, neither side appears willing to budge on their positions for the time being. The governor called up the legislation on Monday, which gives her until Dec. 19 to make a final decision on the measure. So things could still change \u2013 but it\u2019s not so clear that they will.<\/p>\n Legislators have received Hochul\u2019s complete rewrite of the bill as a take-it-or-leave-it pitch, with little to no discussion about compromise since the governor\u2019s office provided her proposed chapter amendments. According to the sources, as things stand now, a veto appears likely if Hochul\u2019s rewrite is in fact in her last and best offer since leaders wouldn\u2019t accept a straight copy of California\u2019s law.<\/p>\n The RAISE Act as passed and the proposal from Hochul have several key differences. Hochul\u2019s version removes the requirement that companies not release unsafe AI models and changes the threshold for applicability from a computational cost of $100 million to revenue of $500 million. That would mean excluding tech companies that are making less profit \u2013 like those in China \u2013 but still developing AI with high computational power. The California law that Hochul has proposed replicating also does not require disclosure of threats of critical harm, only when such harm has actually occurred. The version of the RAISE Act passed by lawmakers would require disclosure within 72 hours if the company believes harm may be imminent.<\/p>\n Members of the tech industry have lobbied for New York to adopt the California law instead of the RAISE Act, which would in effect create a national standard for AI regulations and make it harder to enact stronger measures. \u201cIn the absence of congressional action, Gov. Hochul and the bill sponsors have an opportunity to streamline our framework with the framework that was already more or less agreed to and is being implemented in California,\u201d Julie Samuels, president and CEO of Tech:NYC, said in a statement. \u201cAnd if California has a similar framework, then we’ve just created a national standard, which is what the country needs.”<\/p>\n But the sponsors have in the past expressed their desire to treat the California law as the floor for regulations, rather than the ceiling. \u201cThe RAISE Act is critical legislation to set the rules of the road for AI,\u201d Bores said in a statement to City & State when asked about negotiations over the bill. Gounardes said he and Bores \u201ccarefully designed\u201d their bill to balance consumer safety and technological advancement. \u201cOur bill is like putting seatbelts in a Lamborghini; it’s common sense, and it’s supported by experts who know this technology best,\u201d he said in a statement to City & State. Neither would comment specifically on Hochul\u2019s proposed amendments or the state of negotiations.<\/p>\n The debate around the RAISE Act comes as President Donald Trump has signed an executive order<\/a> meant to prevent states from regulating AI at the state level. A Republican attempt to pass legislation on the matter died in Congress earlier this year. If the RAISE Act goes into effect, the Trump administration could try to challenge the law under the new executive order.<\/p>\n