New York State is moving to implement the RAISE Act, which regulates large AI developers. Frontier AI developers with annual revenue above $500 million must register in November with DIGIT, a new office within the state Department of Financial Services (DFS). Starting Jan. 1, 2027, they will be required to publish safety frameworks, report critical safety incidents within 72 hours and submit quarterly catastrophic-risk assessments. Violations carry fines of up to $1 million for a first offense and up to $3 million for repeat offenses.
New York State has begun implementing the Responsible AI Safety and Education Act (RAISE Act), under which the state directly oversees large artificial intelligence (AI) developers. On Sept. 21, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced that large frontier AI developers will begin registering with the state in November and must comply with safety standards and regular reporting requirements starting Jan. 1, 2027. Oversight will be handled by the newly created Office of Digital Innovation, Governance and Trust (DIGIT) within the state Department of Financial Services (DFS).
The law applies to developers with annual revenue above $500 million that have trained a frontier model using 10^26 or more computational operations. In practice, that covers large AI companies such as OpenAI, Google, Anthropic and Meta. These companies must create safety and transparency frameworks and publish them on their websites. If a "critical safety incident" that could harm people, such as a leak of model weights or a loss of control, is confirmed, they must report it to DIGIT within 72 hours. If there is an imminent risk of death or injury, they must also notify law enforcement within 24 hours. In addition, they must submit a catastrophic-risk assessment every quarter, and starting Jan. 1, 2027, file disclosure documents every two years and pay oversight fees.
For violations, the state attorney general may impose fines of up to $1 million for a first offense and up to $3 million for subsequent offenses. Attorney General Letitia James said, "We will do everything we can to enforce the law and keep New Yorkers safe." Gov. Hochul said, "If you build the most powerful technology in the world, people have a right to know what you are doing to keep it safe, and you must be held accountable when something goes wrong."
The RAISE Act was signed in December 2025, and in March of this year an amendment was passed to align it with California's Transparency in Frontier Artificial Intelligence Act. However, New York is stricter on incident reporting, with a 72-hour deadline that is far shorter than California's 15 days. State Sen. Andrew Gounardes, who sponsored the bill, said, "Even when the federal government sits on its hands, New York is acting decisively, putting our safety ahead of Big Tech's profits." The state appointed Mark Gilman, formerly general counsel at the compliance company Theta Lake, as deputy director for RAISE Act implementation and the first full-time employee of DIGIT.
The measure follows another AI-related action by Gov. Hochul, an executive order she recently signed imposing a one-year moratorium on new construction of large data centers. For New Yorkers who use AI services such as ChatGPT every day, the law means they will be able to check public filings to see what safeguards developers have in place, and it gives the state grounds to step in when problems arise. DFS plans to release the registration process and detailed regulations before November.