Could AI really kill us all? Should New York ban superintelligent AI? Can an AI plan a wedding? Those were among the questions discussed Thursday, when New York Focus hosted the first installment of the new “Focus On” live lecture series. The events will gather authors, policy makers, and thought leaders for in-depth conversations on the top issues of the day.
The first panel focused on the AI industry, and New York’s role in regulating it. New York Focus Editor-in-Chief Akash Mehta led a discussion with Assemblymember Alex Bores, who sponsored the RAISE act, one of the nation’s most ambitious AI safety bills, and Garrison Lovely, author of Obsolete: The AI Industry’s Trillion-Dollar Race to Replace Us — and How to Stop It, which will be released later this month.
Here are some highlights of their discussion:
States have a critical role in regulating AI.
Comprehensive AI regulation may eventually need to come from Congress, which has more legal powers to regulate AI companies than states do, and can set the rules for the entire country at once. But with President Donald Trump opposed to greater AI regulation, and Congress seemingly in no hurry to act, states have an important role to play in the near future
“When you have a technology that moves as quickly as AI, that calls for an increased role for states, because state legislatures move so much faster than Congress does,” Bores said.
States also “much more regularly amend laws and sunset laws and change them,” Bores noted. State laws and regulations that are successful can “become the national standard,” he said.
New York lawmakers are planning to push more AI-focused laws.
Last year, Bores led the charge to pass New York’s RAISE Act, which stands for Responsible AI Safety and Education. When it takes effect in 2027, it will require more public transparency from developers of the most advanced AI models, and obligate those developers to notify the state of incidents that risk major damage to people or property.
But Bores thinks Albany lawmakers should go further. He described laws requiring AI companies not to release new models that are likely to cause danger, and protecting whistleblowers who warn authorities about specific AI threats to public safety.
There are already indications that lawmakers want to return to the topic when Albany’s legislative session kicks off in January. Bores noted that Assemblymember-elect Brian Romero, a Democrat representing Queens, plans to introduce a bill to ban the use of superintelligent AI in New York, paralleling a similar federal bill from US Senator Bernie Sanders.
Data center moratorium — useful or not?
Anti-data center activism has been the most public and widespread opposition to the new developments of the AI age. In July, Governor Kathy Hochul signed a one-year moratorium on especially large data center construction, to give the state time to study how the facilities affect the environment and power grid. But the push for a national data center moratorium may not effectively rein in AI, Lovely argued.
“AI is moving really fast, and that’s with the data centers they have now,” Lovely said. And new computer chips could enable AI companies to run ever more powerful models without needing to build new data centers.
“I worry that if we get a national moratorium, people will be like ‘We did it’ and then AI keeps going crazy and hacking into shit,” Lovely said.
The AI industry wants to send a message with their political spending.
Some politicians may want to go big on regulating AI. But the AI industry is willing to spend huge sums of money to convince them not to take action. When Bores ran for Congress this year, an AI-funded PAC called Leading the Future spent $8 million opposing his campaign. Despite a pro-AI regulation PAC — also heavily funded by AI industry players — that spent even more money supporting Bores, he ultimately lost the Democratic primary to fellow state Assemblymember Micah Lasher.
Bores pointed out that unlike many PACs, which prefer to operate in the shadows, Leading the Future was very public about why it was spending millions against him. The group said Bores’s RAISE Act would “handcuff” AI companies and “open the door for China” to achieve AI dominance.
Bores said that Leading the Future’s spending was not just meant to defeat him, but also “aimed at sending a message to everyone else.”
That message: ‘Hey, don’t be the person that actually takes us on, because we will come after you.’”