New York Gov. Kathy Hochul signed laws requiring more cameras in state prisons and forcing developers of new AI models to follow safety protocols as she cleared her desk of more than 100 bills before the new year.
Hochul, a Democrat, spent the last few weeks negotiating agreements with state lawmakers over changes — called “chapter amendments” — that would win her signature on pending legislation. Last week, she announced an agreement to sign the Medical Aid in Dying Act, which will legalize physician-assisted death.
As the week ended, Hochul signed 73 bills — including changes to who pays for new natural gas hookups — and vetoed 49 others, including a measure that would have required mental health leave for State Troopers who engage in critical incidents.
Many of the vetoed bills had cost implications that Hochul said she wanted to address in the upcoming budget. She also listened to business groups who pushed for vetoes or amendments to other bills, including a change to the state’s wrongful death statute that she vetoed for the fourth time.
“We've had a lot of tough bills to consider, but we got to the right place,” the governor said Monday.
The additional prison cameras are included in an omnibus bill passed in the wake of the beating deaths of two incarcerated people: Robert Brooks and Messiah Nantwi. The governor negotiated with prisoner rights advocates and State Sen. Julia Salazar, a Democrat from Brooklyn, to change some components.
Salazar’s original bill would have expanded the State Commission on Correction to six members from three and required that one member be a previously incarcerated person. With Hochul’s amendments, the body will instead add two part-time members, one of whom is a former prisoner.
“I'm disappointed that we are not making more robust changes,” said Salazar, who chairs the chamber’s corrections committee.
Even with Hochul’s changes, she said the new law is “a really serious step to make our state prisons less violent and safer for incarcerated individuals and for staff.”
Advocacy groups offered different assessments. The Legal Aid Society said the bill was “watered-down” and concluded that “Albany failed to meet the moment.” The Correctional Association of New York, which has a formal outside-watchdog role, said the new law will give it more access to Corrections Department data and enhanced rights to inspect prisons.
Hochul said Monday that her administration had already made changes over the course of the year, including the installation of cameras. Prison guards staged an illegal three-week wildcat strike last winter. Thousands of National Guard troops remain in state prisons to bolster staffing.
“I was proud to work with the advocates, proud to work with the sponsors, and get to a place that allowed us to do more,” Hochul said.
She also agreed to sign the Responsible AI Safety and Education Act, or RAISE Act, which requires developers to disclose safety information and steps they’ve taken to prevent severe risks — like an AI model that is used to develop nuclear weapons.
Industry lobbyists pushed the governor to remove a provision in the initial legislation that would have prevented developers from deploying new models “if doing so would create an unreasonable risk of critical harm.”
She agreed, bringing the new statute in line with regulations set to take effect in California.
The bill’s sponsors said New York’s law is tougher because it includes more specific disclosure requirements and a tighter reporting timeline for any safety incidents — like a model that operates without human direction.
“The RAISE Act lays the groundwork for a world where AI innovation makes life better instead of putting it at risk,” said state Sen. Andrew Gounardes, a Brooklyn Democrat who sponsored the bill. “Big tech oligarchs think it’s fine to put their profits ahead of our safety — we disagree. With this law, we make clear that tech innovation and safety don’t have to be at odds. In New York, we can lead in both.”
Chris Lehane, the chief global affairs officer for OpenAI, said the New York law is “a real step towards forging a national standard that is needed for the country to continue to lead on AI innovation while also putting in place important safety standards.”
Hochul said an executive order from President Donald Trump, which precludes states from issuing AI regulations, complicated matters.
“ In the absence of any kind of real leadership out of Washington, then it's up to states to lead,” she said. “We have to do what we can in the state of New York and having some consistency with California — it makes all the sense in the world. We're not trying to stifle development, but we are forward thinking enough to understand — we have to look at the threats.”
