FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: DECEMBER 19, 2025

New York, NY — The RAISE Act, nation-leading legislation sponsored by State Senator Andrew Gounardes and Assemblymember Alex Bores that will protect New Yorkers from AI’s risks while supporting innovation and economic growth, was signed into law today.

The Responsible AI Safety and Education Act (RAISE) Act (S6953B/A6453B) sets a new floor for AI safety by requiring the largest AI developers to create basic safety and security protocols for severe risks such as assisting in the creation of bioweapons or carrying out automated criminal activity. 

While AI drives innovation across New York—from healthcare to climate solutions—there is growing consensus among experts that the policy window to address severe risks may close soon. The International AI Safety Report—led by a panel of expert advisors from 30 countries—has warned that near-future AI systems may result in “large-scale labour market impacts, AI-enabled hacking or biological attacks, and society losing control over general-purpose AI,” among other potential risks to public safety. Another recent report warned that "the opportunity to establish effective AI governance frameworks may not remain open indefinitely."

The RAISE Act requires large frontier AI developers to write, implement, publish, and comply with plans that describe in detail how they handle various safety standards and best practices, including how they assess the safety risks of their models; apply and review risk-mitigation techniques; use third parties to assess catastrophic risk potential; implement cybersecurity to prevent model theft; identify and respond to safety incidents; and institute frameworks to ensure best practices are followed. Developers must review their plans annually, and publish a justification for any changes within 30 days.

The new law offers key additional protections beyond those required by California’s recently-passed AI safety bill. The RAISE Act creates a new, dedicated office—funded by fees on developers themselves—within the New York State Department of Financial Services to enforce the law, issue rules and regulations, assess fees, and publish an annual report on AI safety. The law also requires developers to describe safety plans in detail, expands access to critical safety incident reports, and requires developers to report critical safety incidents within 72 hours, as opposed to 15 days. It requires frontier developers to report any time they reasonably believe a safety incident has occurred, and increases fines to $3 million dollars for repeat violations. 

Sen. Gounardes and Asm. Bores successfully passed the bill despite ferocious opposition from tech lobbyists and venture capitalists, who spent millions attempting to kill or water down its safety requirements despite well-documented risks. 

“This is an enormous win for the safety of our communities, the growth of our economy and the future of our society,” said State Senator Andrew Gounardes. “The RAISE Act lays the groundwork for a world where AI innovation makes life better instead of putting it at risk. Big tech oligarchs think it’s fine to put their profits ahead of our safety—we disagree. With this law, we make clear that tech innovation and safety don’t have to be at odds. In New York, we can lead in both.”

“The RAISE Act is critical legislation to begin setting the rules of the road for artificial intelligence in New York State—and beyond. It’s about ensuring that innovation and new technology is safe and serves people, not corporate power and profits,” said Assemblymember Alex Bores. “Because we should be in charge of the future, not a handful of AI giants. This is exactly what good government is about. The RAISE Act is New York seeing around the corner and seizing this narrow window to harness AI’s opportunities, while firmly managing the risks it poses.”

Press Contact:

Billy Richling

Communications Director

State Senator Andrew Gounardes

billy@senatorgounardes.nyc

Anna Myers

Chief of Staff

Assemblymember Alex Bores

anna@alexbores.nyc

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