Kathy Hochul is the Governor of New York (D). On December 22, 2025 she signed the RAISE Act chapter amendments (S6953B/A6453B), making New York the second U.S. state, after California's SB 53, to enact frontier-AI transparency legislation. See New York RAISE Act and Governor Hochul Signs Nation-Leading Legislation to Require AI Frameworks for AI Frontier Models (NY DFS, December 22 2025).
RAISE Act signing
Hochul signed the RAISE Act chapter amendments on December 22, 2025. In her signing statement she described the law as building on California's framework and as filling a gap left by federal inaction (Source: Governor Hochul Signs Nation-Leading Legislation to Require AI Frameworks for AI Frontier Models (NY DFS, December 22 2025)):
"By enacting the RAISE Act, New York is once again leading the nation in setting a strong and sensible standard for frontier AI safety, holding the biggest developers accountable for their safety and transparency protocols. This law builds on California's recently adopted framework, creating a unified benchmark among the country's leading tech states as the federal government lags behind, failing to implement common-sense regulations that protect the public." — December 22, 2025
She defended the RAISE Act against the Trump December 2025 state-preemption executive order (EO — Trump Federal Preemption of State AI Laws (Dec 11, 2025)).
Other AI policy
Earlier in Hochul's tenure New York established Empire AI, a state consortium of academia, industry, and government for public-good AI research, which she has characterized as the innovation complement to the state's AI-safety legislation.
On July 14, 2026, Hochul imposed a one-year moratorium on construction of new data centers drawing 50 MW or more — making New York the first U.S. state to halt large new data-center construction — directed a Generic Environmental Impact Statement to set consistent standards, and said she will pursue repeal of the state's data-center sales tax exemption (Source: reuters.com). President Trump attacked the pause on Truth Social on July 15; Hochul replied that "the communities powering AI should share in its success" (Source: cnbc.com). On July 20 she defended the pause as a one-year window to assess energy and other impacts and set the "rules of the road," as White House AI adviser David Sacks charged that the freeze rests on a "false accusation" against AI facilities (Source: insideaipolicy.com).
Hochul also uses AI inside state government: an initiative reported July 17, 2026 applies AI to analyze "every single rule" in New York State as part of a regulatory-review push (Source: theverge.com).
Relationships
- signed: New York RAISE Act (chapter amendments, Dec 22, 2025)
- related: New York Data-Center Moratorium (2026) (executive moratorium, Jul 14, 2026)
- related: Scott Wiener (CA SB 53 author), Gavin Newsom (CA signing precedent), Andrew Gournardes (NY bill author), Alex Bores (Assembly co-sponsor), Kaitlin Asrow (DFS Acting Superintendent — administrator)