Assemblymember Jordan Wright on independent third-party verification

Good evening.

Thank you, Speaker Manon.

Thank you to all the members of the Council.

Thank you, Chair De La Rosa.

I'm New York State Assemblymember Jordan Wright, representing the 70th Assembly District, which is Harlem.

One of the things I've been focused on in Albany is pretty simple.

Who is checking on AI companies?

I have legislation that requires certain AI developers to have an independent third party

third party verify that they're actually following the safety standards that they say they are following.

Because we can't have a system where a company builds the technology, writes the safety rules, tells us they follow the rules, and then we just take their word for it?

Doesn't make much sense to me.

We have to make sure that these third party audits actually mean something.

Who are the auditors?

Are they really independent?

Do they have conflicts of interest?

And what happens when they find something wrong?

Those are questions that we're trying to answer at the state level, and I'm glad the city council is having this discussion as well.

New York should be a place where AI companies want to build and innovate, but the accountability to innovate can exist at the same time.

I want to thank all the members of the council for having us today.

I thank you guys for taking this issue seriously once again, and please enjoy your evenings and be safe.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.