Osse asks Bores about RAISE Act fine reductions

Thank you, Chair.

I have a question for Assemblymember Boris.

We heard today from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and Meta that they supported the RAISE Act but felt like they wanted stronger regulations.

But we know that during negotiations for New York State's RAISE Act, there was a push to lower penalties from $10 million to $30 million to $1 million to $3 million, which is chump change for these corporations.

Why were the fines in the RAISE Act reduced from $10 to $30 million to only $1 to $3 million?

Council member, thank you for that question.

In the early drafts of the RAISE Act, the penalties were up to $10 million for the first violation, and of course that would be based on the severity of the violation, and up to $30 million for a second violation.

The companies argued that that was too high because they were predicting that every state and perhaps municipalities would pass similar versions of the bill

and they would end up paying the fine in 50 states plus in additional municipalities.

I disagreed at the time with that argument.

I think that's been borne out since we've seen only three states.

to pass it.

But perhaps what's most confusing to me is that now they turn around and say that no other state should pass bills like this or that no city should pass bills like this because they're already paying the fines.

Their rhetoric, their testimony was explicit that they are expecting to pay fines in many, many jurisdictions for the same action.

And so I think that testimony is quite supportive.

Of the bills that are being put forward today that would hold them accountable and put additional fines on behavior, even if it is covered by the RAISE Act, because again, that was their own testimony as to why those fines should be lowered.

Thank you very much.

And Senator Gonzalez, I would love to hear from you about some of the organizing that you've been doing, especially within the New York City Democratic Socialists of America, around AI regulation and the vision that is being put forward within that regard.

Thank you so much, Councilmember.

As a fellow member of the Democratic Socialists of America, one thing I spoke about in my testimony was prioritizing a rights-based approach.

I think it is so important to put New Yorkers first by clarifying and setting the terms for what our digital rights should be over the profit-driven motives of so many of these tech companies and tech oligarchs.

That's why we've worked hard on the New York AI Act.

We've certainly supported legislation on frontier models and reining them in, but New Yorkers who are marginalized are feeling the impact.

of imperfect tools every single day, and I'm proud that the Tech Action Working Group has focused on this issue.

In addition, I've worked with a statewide coalition beyond the Democratic Socialists of America, but that include environmental justice organizations like Food and Water Watch and more that are in the fight against hyperscale data centers.

Because as we're talking about the real world harms that are being felt and the potential catastrophic risks,

Every single day, people in upstate New York, in the Capital Region, in the Hudson Valley, are feeling what it means to live near a hyperscale data center.

There are millions of gallons of water being pulled from our state's lakes right now.

Communities are dealing with noise pollution and air pollution right now.

And it's really important to legislate not only the risks, but legislate those data center-driven harms.

Thank you both.

Thank you.

Councilmember Gutierrez.