Parents Urge NY Governor to Sign Historic AI Safety Bill
▼ Summary
– Over 150 parents sent a letter urging New York Governor Kathy Hochul to sign the RAISE Act, which would require major AI developers to create safety plans and report incidents.
– Governor Hochul has proposed a near-total rewrite of the bill, which passed the state legislature in June, to make it more favorable to tech companies.
– Major AI companies and industry groups, including the AI Alliance and a pro-AI super PAC, strongly oppose the legislation, calling it “unworkable.”
– The parents’ letter argues the bill imposes only “minimalist guardrails,” targeting only the largest AI companies with requirements like disclosing major safety incidents.
– The letter compares tech opposition to these rules to past industry resistance, linking a lack of oversight to documented harms to young people’s mental health and stability.
A coalition of concerned parents is calling on New York’s governor to enact landmark legislation designed to impose safety and transparency requirements on major artificial intelligence developers. More than 150 parents have signed a letter urging Governor Kathy Hochul to sign the Responsible AI Safety and Education (RAISE) Act into law without any modifications. This bill, which cleared both houses of the state legislature in June, would mandate that creators of powerful AI models, such as those from Meta, OpenAI, and Google, establish detailed safety protocols and report significant safety incidents.
The push from parents comes amid reports that Governor Hochul is considering substantial revisions to the bill, changes that critics argue would significantly weaken its provisions and align it more closely with the interests of the technology industry. This situation mirrors recent legislative battles in California, where similar proposals were altered following intense lobbying from major AI firms.
Unsurprisingly, the proposed regulations face strong opposition from within the tech sector. Industry groups, including the AI Alliance, whose membership features companies like Meta, IBM, and Intel, have labeled the RAISE Act as “unworkable.” A separate political action committee funded by prominent AI investors and executives has launched advertising campaigns targeting one of the bill’s lead sponsors, New York State Assemblymember Alex Bores.
The parent-led letter, organized by ParentsTogether Action and the Tech Oversight Project, carries a deeply personal weight. It notes that some of the signatories have “lost children to the harms of AI chatbots and social media.” The parents describe the current version of the RAISE Act as providing essential, “minimalist guardrails” that are urgently needed.
They emphasize that the legislation is narrowly targeted, applying only to the largest companies investing hundreds of millions annually in AI development. Under the bill, these firms would be required to disclose major safety incidents to the state attorney general and publicly release their safety plans. A critical provision would prohibit the release of any advanced “frontier” AI model if its deployment could create an unreasonable risk of catastrophic harm.
This risk is specifically defined as scenarios potentially causing the death or serious injury of 100 or more people, or economic damages exceeding one billion dollars. It also includes preventing the development of AI models that could autonomously facilitate the creation of weapons of mass destruction or commit serious criminal acts without meaningful human control.
The letter draws a direct parallel between the current debate over AI and past controversies surrounding social media. “Big Tech’s deep-pocketed opposition to these basic protections looks familiar because we have seen this pattern of avoidance and evasion before,” it states. The signatories point to extensive documentation of harm to young people’s mental health and well-being, which they attribute to the unchecked rollout of algorithmic social media platforms that operated for years without sufficient transparency or accountability.
(Source: The Verge)
