Senator Kristen Gonzalez testifies on rights-based AI legislation

Great, thank you so much.

I want to thank Speaker Menon and the New York City Council for your attention to a, if not the, major policy issue of our time.

I am New York State Senator Kristen Gonzalez, representing the 59th Senate District in Midtown Manhattan, Northern Brooklyn, and Western Queens.

I am the chair of two state senate committees, elections and internet and technology.

Over the last four years as chair of the state senate technology committee and as a former tech worker, I have led on the issue of AI in the legislature and have passed some of the state's first laws on generative AI,

including regulating deepfakes in elections, government use of AI, protecting workers from automation, adding warning labels on chatbots, responsible data center development, and more.

I want to be clear, AI is not inevitable.

We do not have to accept a vision for innovation driven by the very same tech oligarchs who have raised alarm that their models could lead to catastrophic events.

And we certainly can't trust the same people who have rushed to roll out imperfect AI tools to regulate themselves.

As government bodies, we have the responsibility to set guardrails on this new technology and the power to establish regulations that protect workers, consumers, and members of the public from potential danger.

Interventions at every level of government are needed to

to ensure AI is developed in a responsible way that benefits the public and not just the billionaires.

Responsibly regulating AI absolutely means guardrails on frontier models and superintelligence that pose significant threats.

However, meaningfully reining in these technologies to protect New Yorkers means regulating the AI-powered tools these companies are rushing to embed into every part of our lives with little oversight and little accountability.

We shouldn't have to wait for future harms to take action, because the harms of imperfect AI tools are already being felt across the country.

For example, uses for mass surveillance of immigrant communities and workers, chatbots creating intimate partner relationships with children and adults going as far as to encourage self-harm,

and documented cases of algorithmic bias in decision-making, such as in hiring, healthcare, and housing.

I believe we have the power to set the terms of innovation so that this technology is used for the maximum public good.

That is why our state legislation has prioritized a rights-based approach to AI.

We should have the fundamental right to privacy, which is why I've introduced the New York Privacy Act.

We should have a right to protections in the workplace, which is why I've introduced the BOT Act to protect workers from workplace surveillance.

We should have the right to know when AI is making high risk

consequential decisions about our lives and subjecting us to algorithmic bias, which is why I introduced the New York AI Act.

This bill requires third-party audits, compliance with international safety standards, disclosures, transparency, and importantly, for a human to be in the loop in consequential decision-making, much of which we've heard about today.

Finally, two of my bills sitting on the governor's desk this year include the right to keep our kids safe online from chatbots and the right to protect all of us from the build-out of massive data centers.

Our bill, S9051B, bans unsafe features for kids and passed unanimously in both chambers of the legislature.

Just like with that bill, New Yorkers are united in the fight against hyperscale data centers.

At the end of August, I embarked on a statewide tour of communities that are affected by these data centers, and I went to 13 different communities facing major noise pollution, health impacts, environmental degradation, and threats to their water supplies.

I was proud to work with the governor on her first in the nation moratorium on the largest data centers, and I'm now working to get the Responsible Data Center Development Act signed into law.

While the tech CEOs say they want regulations, they have spent their time in Albany fighting against each of the common sense guardrails I have mentioned.

For the lip service they pay to supporting legislation, it is only ever for the most watered-down version of a bill.

Together, we have the ability to meet the moment, pass real legislation, protect New Yorkers, and build a future that allows us to benefit from innovation while protecting New Yorkers from real harm.

Thank you to the council again today for our testimony.

Thank you.

Thank you, Senator.

You can continue, whoever wants to go next.