Big tech companies hope the release of the White House’s plan to develop artificial intelligence in the U.S. will make state leaders think twice about implementing proposed industry regulations in New York.
President Donald Trump’s administration released its blueprint Wednesday to build American AI infrastructure and ensure the nation remains a leader in the developing industry. The guidelines could influence states’ decisions to implement their own policies, but not without pushback from companies that profit from the emerging technology.
“To win this Super Bowl of A.I. against China, we need to be working from one playbook,” said Doug Kelly, CEO of American Edge Project that advocates for technological development in the U.S. “President Trump has laid out a pretty good playbook on this, but we can’t win it if we have 50 different state-based playbooks…all of which create this pattern of confusion and chaos for our developers.”
Trump released three executive orders with his AI action plan to accelerate federal approval of data centers and energy infrastructure. The president’s plan places the focus on industry innovation — shifting away from regulation.
“We just don’t have enough electricity in this country from all sources…at the end of the day, if we don’t have enough power, we can’t win this race,” Kelly explained.
Congress considered a 10-year moratorium to bar states from regulating AI as federal policymakers debated the latest spending bill earlier this month, but it was not included in the final law.
State lawmakers passed a handful of bills to regulate artificial intelligence this session, including labeling deepfake images and videos used in ads and to hold large A.I. companies responsible for potential public safety risks.
Large technology corporations are expected to increase their efforts to New York to stay out of their way and leave regulations to the federal government.
Gov. Kathy Hochul must sign, amend or veto the measures by the end of the year, and it’s unclear how the new federal guidelines will influence her decision.
“It would be good if the governor actually put together a working group, if we looked at this, and it had experts across the private sector and the public sector…experts in the industry as well as researchers,” said Justin Wilcox, executive director of Upstate United.
Wilcox argues multiple policies could hamstring innovative tech companies — big and small.
He cited a recent Brookings report that shows upstate cities like Albany, Buffalo, Rochester and Syracuse are ideal regions for AI development, and said regulations imposed at the state level could hamper economic opportunity upstate.
“AI is likely to be a transformative force for both our economy and society,” Wilcox said. “As with any general purpose technology, the regions that are best prepared to develop and adopt it will see the greatest benefits. In that respect, upstate New York is uniquely well positioned…The economic potential, spanning research, data centers, engineering and programming jobs, will concentrate in areas that are ready to lead in innovation and deployment.”
Tech companies have opposed a headed for Hochul’s desk to require large AI companies to publish safety protocols and disclose when an AI model behaves dangerously. The Responsible AI Safety and Education, or RAISE Act, would hold developers liable for potential public safety threats and prevent the use of AI to make bioweapons.
Sponsor Assemblyman Alex Bores said the measure won’t slow innovation, and companies would need one employee to monitor safety plans or dangerous incidents.
“To ask these companies spending hundreds of millions of dollars to have one person thinking about safety is not going to slow innovation down,” Bores said.
Bores, a Manhattan Democrat, said he’s encouraged by the White House plan, which details the need for industry transparency, interpretability research and biosecurity.
“I do think the plan is a noticeable movement toward being concerned with safety and making sure that this is done in the correct way, but what I think it shows is there is still a dearth of AI leadership at the federal level and Gov. Hochul can take a strong stance and make New York the place where many of these standards are set,” he said. “There is one state right now that has pased a frontier model bill that’s pending an executive signature and that’s in New York. I would encourage the governor to…act on this quickly and set the standard and have New York lead.”
The assemblyman said he’s in conversations with Hochul’s staff, and is hopeful the policy could be amended to add a provision mandating annual third-party audits back in after several companies ahve recommitted to them in the Europe A.I. Code of Practice.
Hochul does not publicly discuss her thoughts on legislation headed for her desk until she makes a decision. She’ll likely review the legislation and make a decision at the end of the year.