One year after passing the landmark RAISE Act, a pair of New York lawmakers want the state to double down. State Sen. Andrew Gounardes of Brooklyn and Assemblymember Jordan Wright of Harlem introduced a bill on Thursday (Oct. 29) to build on the earlier AI safety law by adding new incident disclosure requirements, bolstering enforcement and establishing independent safety oversight.
The bill would require large developers to report quarterly on how much of their AI research is automated, known as recursive self-improvement, and how they use their computing power. They would also have to disclose any substantial jump in risk or in their models’ ability to automate AI research within 72 hours.
It also would enable the newly-created state Office of Digital Innovation, Governance, Integrity and Trust (DIGIT) to limit the computing power large developers devote to training new models or to automated AI research to reduce the risk of catastrophic damage from adverse events and to prevent a critical safety incident. And it empowers the Attorney General to ask a court to halt dangerous activity, including by restricting a model’s deployment in New York.
The biggest proposed change, however, is to mandate independent safety audits for large developers. The RAISE Act only requires AI developers to disclose their safety plans. The new bill would require developers to retain an independent, state-licensed “frontier examiner,” to conduct annual audits of the developer’s compliance with its safety frameworks, and perform broader safety evaluations and make catastrophic risk assessments every 90 days.
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“Every day, frightening new headlines make it clear: when it comes to AI, we can’t trust Big Tech companies to regulate themselves,” Sen. Gounardes said in a press release announcing the legislation. This isn’t science fiction. Our safety, our economy, and our very humanity is at serious risk.”
The independent examiner requirement would make AI safety oversight in New York akin to bank supervision, in which outside auditors evaluate an institution’s governance, operational risk, controls and remediation. With the expansion of the DIGIT office’s powers, AI oversight in New York would take on some of the institutional characteristics of banking regulation.
“[T]he 2026 International AI Safety Report warned that the mass proliferation of AI development and rapid deployment is outpacing the effectiveness of current imperfect safeguards, underscoring the need for strong and effective oversight of model safety,” State Sen. Patricia Fahy, D-Albany, a co-sponsor, said in a statement. “If the federal government won’t step in to regulate AI and institute commonsense safeguards, New York State will.”
If enacted, the New York bill would deepen the divide between state legislatures—which have moved aggressively to establish guardrails around AI—and the Trump administration, which has sought to keep regulators’ hands off AI developers and systems.
“The RAISE Act was always meant to be the floor, not the ceiling,” said Assemblymember Alex Bores of Manhattan, who authored the original law. “[W]hile Washington continues to sit on its hands—or worse, enable Silicon Valley billionaires—Senator Gounardes is once again showing what it means for states to lead.”
Bores, a former Palantir researcher, attracted the ire of the tech industry and its venture capital funders for pushing the RAISE Act. He was the first target, in his recent unsuccessful run for Congress earlier this year, of an industry-backed super PAC established to oppose candidates who support AI regulations.
“I’m proud to stand with [Sen. Gounardes] in making sure New Yorkers, not just the companies building these systems, have a say in how AI shapes our future,” Bores said.
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