New York employs a unique legislative process called "chapter amendments," where the governor can negotiate changes to a bill with its sponsors *after* it has passed the legislature. This allows for post-passage adjustments, with about a third of signed bills going through this process.
The political anxiety around AI stems from leaders' recent experience with social media, which acted as an "authority destroyer." Social media eroded the credibility of established institutions and public narrative control. Leaders now view AI through this lens, fearing a repeat of this power shift.
Contrary to its controversial reputation, New York's RAISE Act is narrowly focused on catastrophic risks. The bill's threshold for action is extraordinarily high: an AI must contribute to 100 deaths, $1 billion in damage, or a fully automated crime, far from regulating everyday AI applications.
An anti-regulation super PAC's attack ads targeting New York State Assembly member Alex Boris are ironically helping his campaign. The ads raise his name recognition and highlight his popular stance on regulating AI, leading to a surge in donations and volunteers.
The political landscape for AI is not a simple binary. Policy expert Dean Ball identifies three key factions: AI safety advocates, a pro-AI industry camp, and an emerging "truly anti-AI" group. The decisive factor will be which direction the moderate "consumer protection" and "kids safety" advocates lean.
A proposed policy for China involves renting access to US-controlled chips (e.g., in Malaysian data centers) instead of selling them outright. This allows Chinese companies to benefit commercially while giving the US the ability to "turn off" the chips if they are misused for military purposes.
Attempts to undermine Chinese chip maker Huawei by allowing NVIDIA to sell chips to China are flawed. The Chinese government operates outside typical market dynamics and will ensure unlimited demand for Huawei's products, making NVIDIA a temporary gap-filler that inadvertently turbocharges China's AI industry.
Assemblyman Alex Boris argues against copying California's AI safety bill (SB53). Unlike state-specific data privacy laws, such a bill wouldn't grant new rights to New Yorkers, as any company large enough to be affected in New York is already subject to the California law, making the effort redundant.
The massive investment in data centers isn't just a bet on today's models. As AI becomes more efficient, smaller yet powerful models will be deployed on older hardware. This extends the serviceable life and economic return of current infrastructure, ensuring today's data centers will still generate value years from now.