Video, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: Governor Hochul Launches FutureWorks Commission Listening Sessions as Part of Plan to Address AI Workforce Impacts Across New York

Earlier today, Governor Kathy Hochul launched the next phase in her nation-leading FutureWorks Commission - kicking off a series of listening sessions that will inform new policy and private sector recommendations to address the workforce impacts of AI.

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.

PHOTOS: The Governor's Flickr page will post photos of the event here.

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

It's a beautiful day outside, but there's a lot of stress inside. Inside buildings like this all over America, but here in New York - I want to thank all of you for joining us in an important conversation. This is an outgrowth of something we launched earlier in the year. We were trying to focus New York State on yes, we embrace change and always embrace the winds of change and innovation. That's what we're known for, it's why we're so exceptional. We also want to make sure that something that's coming in with the force of a hurricane is spoken about, anticipated, prepared for. And I want to thank Molly Kinder, a brilliant researcher out of Brookings who has started her own firm and has now joined us as the co-chair of what I call the FutureWorks Commission. We talked about it for a few months, but launched officially with our first meeting in July. We brought together the smartest people. We have Emma Vadehra who is my policy director and incredible in terms of helping us find solutions to challenges that other states don't even take on.

So we're focusing on this with a commission of experts, people in tech, people in overall business, labor, academia, research and government, talking about the challenge of yes, embracing the benefits of AI, but also being a lot smarter than society and government had been when there were past disruptions. And I know a little bit about that because I'm from Buffalo - Go Bills - it's almost season. But when I was growing up you could live a good life working at the steel plant. My grandpa worked there, my dad worked there. It lifted people out of poverty. People worked at the Ford plant. People worked at the GM plant so you could build things with your hands and make things and just have that chance to maybe take a vacation someday and have a car.

That was the American dream, and then when the company shut down in 1982 the big one left 20,000 jobs, my town, which was a nice little town, was decimated. Boarded up signs everywhere going out of business. The phrase was "the last one here, shut out the lights." That's what I grew up with, and the other plants were similarly affected. All my siblings left the area, there were no jobs. So I saw that disruption, and government was not prepared for it, did not help the residents, did not help citizens, did not help workers adapt, and there was a whole generation of people who had staked their lives on those careers that had nothing. And it was painful and those scars are still with me today. So what I know about AI and its impacts, the disruptive impacts on jobs, I think about women in particular because it took so long for women to achieve their places in the workforce with many setbacks. Moms who had to stay home during the pandemic because the kids were home, they lost income - they were the ones most affected. And I look at the fact that 84 percent of the jobs that are out there, viewed as most likely to be impacted negatively by AI, are held by women. 84 percent.

So that sounds the alarms in my mind and we have to talk about this. So today is my second conversation I've had with New Yorkers. I did one a few months ago with people from tech jobs, who were literally told their jobs were gone because of AI and they sat there with this sense of disbelief. I thought I was doing the right thing, I got the college degree everybody told me to get, going to the field that'll be there forever. Going to technology, going to STEM fields, going to computer coding - and they had their lives turned upside down. I want to make sure that we in New York are prepared to manage this, especially for women in the workforce. And all of you are part of that conversation here today. I want to hear from all of you on what you're seeing, feeling, experiencing and how we ultimately came up with our recommendations. And again, Molly and Emma are doing a great job with recommendations that I literally will have in my possession this fall because I'm impatient.

I don't want to study something for a year when I say you're done in a few months. Figure it out, give me recommendations for my State of the State address this January, and we're going to move forward again. We will position New York as a real leader and how we manage the impact on our residents. Does it involve making sure that the next generation is AI-competent so they can take the jobs that require some knowledge of AI? Is it finding out other skills and the jobs that we think are being more AI proof? I think about healthcare. I think about building - all the building boom that's going on here in New York. We need workers, but that's not for everybody's interests and we have to figure this out. So I just want to say thank you for joining the conversation.

And to Molly, do you want to say a few words?