Video, Audio & Rush Transcript: Governor Hochul Discusses Keeping AI Developers Accountable

Governor Kathy Hochul today emphasized keeping AI developers accountable for their safety and transparency protocols through her nation-leading RAISE Act alongside her one-year hyperscale data center moratorium.

VIDEO: The event is available to stream on YouTube here and TV quality video is available here (h.264, mp4).

AUDIO: The Governor's remarks are available in audio form here.

A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:

I want to just address the fact that we've been hearing a lot over the last few days about the dire warnings associated with artificial intelligence. Headlines predicting that AI will kill us all in the next decade. Understandably, Americans are concerned, as am I. But when people are building the most powerful AI systems in the world, they're sounding the alarm, you would think Washington would listen and respond.

But of course, the Trump administration absolutely refuses to do that. I believe we have an obligation to ensure that technological progress does not come at our own peril. So while Washington refuses to act, here in New York, we're stepping up. That's why I've signed the nation-leading RAISE Act to hold the world's largest AI developers accountable for their safety and transparency protocols.

I want New Yorkers to be aware. It requires them to publish their safety protocols, report critical incidents within 72 hours, and if they don't play by the rules, to face potential civil penalties. These are common sense regulations, and I'll continue to find additional actions that we can take at the state level to lead the way in the absence of leadership from Washington.

As Governor, I believe we must put protecting people above the race for more powerful technology. We must demand accountability, safety, transparency. Which is why earlier this year, I signed an executive order making New York the first in the nation to impose a statewide moratorium on hyperscale AI data centers.

This one-year moratorium gives us the pause we need to address the impact hyperscale data centers have on our communities, from noise and water pollution to what it means for our farmland and of course our power grid, because these centers put enormous strain on our power grid. As we're talking about reducing costs, these energy-sucking entities are working counter to what our objective is here to reduce costs for New Yorkers.

That's why I've said from the beginning, they must provide their own energy or pay a premium to use ours. Now I'm pleased to announce my administration has taken the next step. I mentioned this when we first announced the moratorium. Now we're publishing our community investment framework. It gives communities that want to say yes - this is a big qualifier - the communities that want to say yes to hosting hyperscale data centers, the toolbox to get the most out of that decision.

I was a local official for 14 years. Those years taught me that local governments know what's best for their communities. We can't negotiate these data center deals for them, but we can help them negotiate the best deal for their residents, and that's what the community investment framework does. It gives local governments a roadmap to negotiate a deal that maximizes the economic benefits that matter most to them, whether it's for new roads, new infrastructure, new medical centers, new schools. It also helps them get a deal that mitigates the negative effects of hosting these hyperscale data centers.

Because if a community chooses to host one of these data centers, they should reap meaningful rewards and know that their community will be protected. We'll be speaking about this much more during the course of the year-long moratorium, but I wanted to let communities know that we've responded already, giving them the playbook, and we have details that are being released later today.