New York bill would let state limit frontier AI training

A New York state office could order the biggest AI labs to use less computing power under a bill introduced in the state Senate. The measure is not law. It was introduced Oct. 28 and sent to the Senate Rules Committee, according to the bill record.

The bill is S10731. Sen. Andrew Gounardes is the sponsor. Sen. Patricia Fahy, D-Albany, is a co-sponsor. It rewrites New York’s RAISE Act, the frontier AI safety law at Section 1420 and following of the General Business Law. Gounardes announced it in a press release.

The rule in plain English

The core new power is in Section 1425. An office inside the state Department of Financial Services could order “large frontier developers” to limit the computing power used “to train new models” or for “automated research and development.” Such an order may be issued only “to reduce catastrophic risk, prevent a critical safety incident, or avert a covered emergency.”

The bill also requires each large developer to hire an outside “frontier examiner” (Section 1424). Examiners would audit compliance once a year. Starting in 2028, they would file risk reports every 90 days, and the public versions would be posted. From Jan. 1, 2029, only examiners licensed by the state could do the work.

Fines rise sharply. The attorney general could seek up to $1 million per day for a first violation and $3 million per day after that (Section 1431). Current law caps penalties per violation. The attorney general could also ask a court to halt activity or restrict a model’s “deployment, use, or availability” in New York.

Who it binds and who it exempts

It binds companies that, with affiliates, spent more than $1 billion over 36 months developing frontier models (Section 1420). Current law uses a $500 million revenue test. The training-compute threshold falls from 10^26 to 10^25 operations.

Smaller developers face lighter transparency duties. Open-source copies no longer in a developer’s possession are carved out of the containment duty. There is no private right to sue.

What changes for founders, workers and parents

Most startups would not hit the $1 billion spending line. Big labs would report quarterly what share of their research is automated and how compute is split, with 72-hour updates after a “substantial increase” in risk (Section 1423). A senior officer would certify filings “under penalty of perjury.” Workers gain whistleblower rights and a ban on contracts that silence them (Section 1426). Nothing in the bill is aimed at parents or children directly.

Our read

The first RAISE Act was mostly about disclosure: publish a safety plan, report incidents. This bill moves from telling the public to telling the labs what they may do. Letting one state office cap compute for a national industry is a big claim of state power. It invites a fight over whether Washington, not Albany, should set the rules for frontier AI, and over whether federal action could preempt a state cap.

The bill does show some restraint. Section 1422 tells the office to weigh whether a risk is “sufficiently understood to support effective regulation” before writing rules. Failing to follow an examiner’s advice is not, by itself, finable without a court order.

The harder questions are practical. The bill would create a licensed frontier-examiner market from scratch: the office would have until Jan. 1, 2028, to write licensing rules, and only licensed examiners could do the work from 2029. Penalties of up to $3 million a day are serious money even for the largest labs. That gives the attorney general real leverage, and it gives companies reason to litigate. Whether a state agency can judge when training is too risky, and enforce a cap on work done in data centers elsewhere, is the test this bill would face.

What’s next

The bill sits in the Senate Rules Committee. The Assembly record lists no companion bill. It would take effect on the same schedule as chapter 699 of the laws of 2025. Thursday, New York enacted limits on AI companion features for minors.

Sources: S10731 bill text and actions, New York State Assembly; Sen. Andrew Gounardes press release, Oct. 29, 2026