OpenAI, Anthropic face new oversight as New York’s AI safety law takes effect

New York is gearing up to enforce one of the country’s most significant AI safety laws. The state opened a registration portal Tuesday, with which large frontier AI developers like Anthropic and OpenAI will be required to register by January 1, 2027. 

The RAISE Act, New York’s safety and transparency bill, kicks in at the start of the year. It mandates that large frontier developers — companies with more than $500 million in annual revenue — have to publish safety frameworks on their websites, report critical safety incidents within 72 hours, and issue public model transparency reports. 

The newly formed Office of Digital Innovation, Governance, Integrity, and Trust (DIGIT) will implement the RAISE Act and oversee large frontier AI labs. Penalties can be as high as $1 million for one violation and $3 million for subsequent violations.

The state can bring also enforcement actions against companies that fail to register with the new portal, though a spokesperson declined to provide specifics. 

“Tech moguls tell us that their vision for AI is inevitable,” Governor Kathy Hochul said Tuesday during a press briefing.  “They tell us get on board or get left behind …That any collateral damage is worth it as long as we win the race to the AI cliff.”

On Tuesday, Hochul also launched the New York Center for AI Responsibility and Research based at State University of New York’s Binghamton University. The center will independently evaluate the safety, security, and operation of advanced AI systems and work with DIGIT to review companies’ safety frameworks. Hochul first announced the center in January with $55 million in donations and capital.

“We’re building a national model for smart, sensible AI regulation, a model that puts communities above corporations and people above powerful technology,” Hochul said.  

The RAISE Act isn’t the only safety law New York has passed. Last year, the state began enforcing a law that requires AI companion operators to regularly let users know they’re talking to a bot, and to make reasonable efforts to detect suicidal ideation and self-harm.

In October, Hochul signed a separate chatbot safety law for minors, restricting behaviors like deceptive human-like interactions, emotionally manipulative or sycophantic responses, and encouragement of behaviors like suicide or disordered eating. That law takes effect June 1, 2027.

Other states have also passed similar AI safety and transparency bills to the RAISE Act. California’s SB 53, which took effect in January, mandates that frontier AI labs have in place and publish safety frameworks, enact whistleblower protections, and report critical safety incidents within 15 days. Illinois’s SB 315, which will go into effect at the start of 2027, has similar requirements, plus includes independent safety compliance audits.

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