STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 1205 2025-2026 Regular Sessions IN ASSEMBLY January 9, 2025 ___________ Introduced by M. of A. SOLAGES, REYES -- read once and referred to the Committee on Governmental Operations AN ACT to amend the state technology law, in relation to establishing the position of chief artificial intelligence officer and the func- tions, powers and duties therefor The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem- bly, do enact as follows: 1 Section 1. Section 101 of the state technology law is amended by 2 adding two new subdivisions 7 and 8 to read as follows: 3 7. "Artificial intelligence" or "AI" shall mean: (a) a machine-based 4 system that operates with varying levels of autonomy and that may exhib- 5 it adaptiveness after deployment and that, for explicit or implicit 6 objectives, infers, from the input the system receives, how to generate 7 outputs such as predictions, content, recommendations, or decisions that 8 may influence physical or virtual environments. This includes, but is 9 not limited to, systems, applications, software, or devices designed to: 10 (i) Sense, interpret, process, analyze, or otherwise comprehend data, 11 text, speech, voice, images, video, sensor inputs, or other forms of 12 information from physical and virtual environments. 13 (ii) Abstract concepts, detect patterns, extract features, develop 14 explanatory and predictive data models, or otherwise derive higher-order 15 insights through analysis of data and information. 16 (iii) Apply reasoning, decision logic, knowledge representation, 17 prediction models, data model inferences, or other structured and 18 unstructured techniques and capabilities to generate options, recommen- 19 dations, forecasts, determinations, conclusions, actions, or other 20 outputs that influence physical or virtual environments, systems, appli- 21 cations, devices, or decision-making. 22 (iv) Operate autonomously once deployed, regardless of whether 23 designed to allow human monitoring, oversight, intervention, or over- 24 ride. 25 (b) This definition shall not include any software used primarily for 26 basic computerized processes, such as calculators, spell check tools, 27 autocorrect functions, spreadsheets, electronic communications, or any EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [ ] is old law to be omitted. LBD01083-01-5
A. 1205 2 1 tool that relates only to internal management affairs such as ordering 2 office supplies or processing payments, and that do not materially 3 affect the rights, liberties, safety or welfare of any human. 4 8. "Automated decision-making system" shall mean any software that 5 uses algorithms, computational models, or artificial intelligence, or a 6 combination thereof, to automate, support, or replace human decision- 7 making and shall include, without limitation, systems that process data, 8 and apply predefined rules or machine learning algorithms to analyze 9 such data, and generate conclusions, recommendations, outcomes, assump- 10 tions, projections, or predictions. "Automated decision-making system" 11 shall not include any software used primarily for basic computerized 12 processes, such as calculators, spell check tools, autocorrect func- 13 tions, spreadsheets, electronic communications, or any tool that relates 14 only to internal management affairs such as ordering office supplies or 15 processing payments, and that do not materially affect the rights, 16 liberties, safety or welfare of any human. 17 § 2. The state technology law is amended by adding a new section 102-a 18 to read as follows: 19 § 102-a. Chief artificial intelligence officer; functions, powers and 20 duties. 1. There is hereby established the office of artificial intelli- 21 gence within the office. The head of such office shall be the chief 22 artificial intelligence officer and shall be appointed by the governor 23 with the advice and consent of the senate. The chief artificial intelli- 24 gence officer shall be in sole charge of the administration of the 25 office, and shall report to the executive department. The chief artifi- 26 cial intelligence officer shall be designated as management confidential 27 in the noncompetitive class in accordance with the civil service law. 28 The chief artificial intelligence officer shall have expertise in arti- 29 ficial intelligence, data privacy, and the technology industry. 30 2. The office of artificial intelligence shall have the following 31 functions, powers and duties: 32 (a) Develop statewide artificial intelligence policies and governance, 33 including but not limited to: 34 (i) Developing and updating state policy and guidelines on the use, 35 procurement, development, and deployment of artificial intelligence and 36 automated decision-making systems in a manner consistent with state 37 laws; 38 (ii) Developing and updating a handbook regarding the use, study, 39 development, evaluation, and procurement of systems that use artificial 40 intelligence, in a manner consistent with state and federal laws, and 41 national and international standards for use by the state's departments, 42 boards, commissions, agencies and authorities; 43 (iii) Developing a risk management plan, including procedures for 44 assessing and classifying risk levels, including, but not limited to, 45 pertaining to the operations of the state, data security and privacy, 46 and the rights, liberties, safety and welfare of any human for use of 47 artificial intelligence and automated decision-making systems by the 48 state's departments, boards, commissions, agencies and authorities; and 49 (iv) Setting governance standards for human oversight of artificial 50 intelligence and automated systems, and determining resource require- 51 ments for responsible adoption, including, but not limited to developing 52 and deploying employee training programs for safe and responsible use of 53 artificial intelligence; and 54 (v) Ensuring public access requirements are established for the publi- 55 cation of information related to each state agency use of automated 56 decision-making systems and artificial intelligence;
A. 1205 3 1 (b) Coordinate the activities of any and all state departments, 2 boards, commissions, agencies and authorities performing any functions 3 using artificial intelligence tools; 4 (c) Coordinate and track state department, board, commission, agency 5 and authority procurement and planning in state programs; 6 (d) Investigate and assess what resources, monetary or otherwise, if 7 any, a department, board, commission, authority or agency requires to 8 adapt to the changes that artificial intelligence will bring to the 9 regulatory landscape and to adequately adopt and oversee the use of 10 artificial intelligence across its operations; 11 (e) Provide guidance to governmental entities in developing, designing 12 and deploying standards, mission, regulations, investments, practices, 13 systems pertaining to the use of artificial intelligence tools and auto- 14 mated decision-making systems, in a manner that protects the rights and 15 safety of individuals, including but not limited to employee training, 16 protecting privacy and data security, safeguarding against discrimi- 17 nation based on race, gender, ethnicity, religion, disability, sexual 18 orientation, or socioeconomic status, mitigating risks of misinformation 19 and manipulation, and impact on the human workforce; 20 (f) Recommend the replacement, disconnection or deactivation of any 21 application that utilizes artificial intelligence or any automated deci- 22 sion-making system and that demonstrates that deployment and use is 23 inconsistent with provisions of law or is otherwise harmful to the oper- 24 ations of the state, data security and privacy, or the rights, liber- 25 ties, safety, and welfare of any human; 26 (g) Study the implications of the usage of artificial intelligence for 27 data collection to inform testing and evaluation, verification and vali- 28 dation of artificial intelligence to ensure that artificial intelligence 29 will perform as intended, including when interacting with humans and 30 other systems, develop common metrics to assess trustworthiness that 31 artificial intelligence systems will perform as intended, and minimize 32 performance problems and unanticipated outcomes, protect against risks 33 to data security and privacy, and address the possibility of intentional 34 misuse of an artificial intelligence system; 35 (h) Submit a report annually to the temporary president of the senate 36 and the speaker of the assembly on progress, findings, studies and 37 recommendations regarding the use of artificial intelligence and auto- 38 mated decision-making systems in the various government agencies. Such 39 report shall also be made publicly available on the office of informa- 40 tion technology website. Where the chief artificial intelligence officer 41 makes a determination that such disclosure would result in a substantial 42 negative impact on health or safety of the public, infringe upon the 43 privacy rights of individuals, or significantly impair the state's abil- 44 ity to protect its information technology or operational assets, the 45 officer may redact such information, provided an explanatory statement 46 by which such determination was made is published along with the redact- 47 ed report. The provisions of this subdivision shall not be deemed to 48 require or authorize the disclosure of confidential information or trade 49 secrets; and 50 (i) Investigate and conduct periodic audits of any department's, 51 board's, commission's, agency's or authority's use of artificial intel- 52 ligence tools or automated decision-making systems to ensure: 53 (i) departments, boards, commissions, agencies and authorities devel- 54 op, acquire and use such tools or systems that comply with the constitu- 55 tion, state and federal laws;
A. 1205 4 1 (ii) ensure that any benefit a department, board, commission, agency 2 or authority receives by using such tools or systems outweighs any risk 3 in using that automated system; 4 (iii) ensure that each such tool or system is secure, protected and 5 resistant to circumstances in which that automated system faces any 6 systematic vulnerability, manipulation or malicious exploitation; and 7 (iv) nothing in this section shall be construed as restricting the 8 artificial intelligence officer's or any state department's, board's, 9 commission's, authority's or agency's access to: 10 (1) conduct any internal investigation aimed at developing, improving 11 or repairing any product, service or technology, 12 (2) prevent, detect, protect, respond, investigate, report to any 13 person responsible for any security incident, identity theft, fraud, 14 harassment, malicious or misleading activity or illegal activity, or 15 (3) preserve the integrity or security of any system. 16 3. To effectuate the purposes of this section, the chief artificial 17 intelligence officer may request and receive from any department, divi- 18 sion, board, bureau, commission or other agency of the state or any 19 political subdivision thereof or any public authority, staff and other 20 assistance, information, and resources as will enable the office of 21 artificial intelligence to properly carry out its functions, powers and 22 duties. 23 § 3. The state technology law is amended by adding a new section 104-a 24 to read as follows: 25 § 104-a. Advisory committee for state artificial intelligence policy. 26 1. There is hereby created in the division of broadband access an advi- 27 sory committee for state artificial intelligence policy. The chief arti- 28 ficial intelligence officer shall serve as chair of the committee. The 29 committee shall be composed of a minimum of seven representatives or 30 their equivalent selected from state agencies and appointed by the 31 governor, provided that no more than one member shall be appointed from 32 a single agency, and provided further that the director shall serve as 33 an ex-officio member of the committee. In addition, one member shall be 34 appointed by the speaker of the assembly, one by the temporary president 35 of the senate, and two members to be appointed by the governor at the 36 recommendation of the two largest organizations in the state represent- 37 ing municipal leadership. 38 2. All members of the advisory committee shall serve at the pleasure 39 of their appointing authority. The members of the committee shall 40 receive no compensation for their services, but shall be allowed their 41 actual and necessary expenses incurred in the performance of their 42 duties. 43 3. No member of the advisory committee shall be disqualified from 44 holding any other public office, nor forfeit any such office by reason 45 of appointment hereunder, notwithstanding the provisions of any general, 46 special or local law, ordinance or city charter, provided however that 47 members appointed by the governor, speaker of the assembly, or temporary 48 president of the senate shall be considered state officers and subject 49 to the provisions of paragraph (a) of subdivision eight of section 50 seventy-three of the public officers law. 51 4. The advisory committee shall, at minimum, meet twice in each calen- 52 dar year, provided that additional meetings of the advisory committee 53 may be called by the chairperson at any time. 54 5. The advisory committee shall:
A. 1205 5 1 (a) Advise the chief artificial intelligence officer on best practices 2 for the use of artificial intelligence and automated decision-making 3 systems in agencies; 4 (b) Advise the chief artificial intelligence officer on state policy 5 for artificial intelligence and automated decision-making systems; 6 (c) Advise the chief artificial intelligence officer on the current 7 state of the state in relation to competitiveness in artificial intelli- 8 gence, including the scope and scale of New York's investments in arti- 9 ficial intelligence research and development; 10 (d) Advise the chief artificial intelligence officer on improving the 11 workforce, including use in training, education and worker assistance in 12 relation to the use of artificial intelligence; 13 (e) Advise the chief artificial intelligence officer on leveraging 14 local resources to optimize and improve operations in various areas of 15 government operations, including but not limited to medical services, 16 cyber security, infrastructure, and recovery from natural disasters; 17 (f) Advise the chief artificial intelligence officer on opportunities 18 for local, regional, interstate, federal, and international cooperation 19 in artificial intelligence research activities, standards development 20 and regulations; 21 (g) Advise the chief artificial intelligence officer on strategies to 22 prevent and mitigate artificial intelligence-assisted misinformation 23 campaigns and the potentially harmful effects of artificial intelli- 24 gence; 25 (h) Advise the chief artificial intelligence officer on how the state 26 can leverage the substantial and growing expertise of the emerging tech- 27 nologies, such as artificial intelligence, in the long-term development 28 of public policies that affect the privacy, rights, and the use of arti- 29 ficial intelligence online; 30 (i) Advise the chief artificial intelligence officer on strategies for 31 the development of inter-governmental cooperation among agencies of the 32 federal, state, and local governments and cooperation; and 33 (j) Make periodic recommendations to the legislature on legislative or 34 regulatory changes. 35 § 4. Subdivisions 2 and 3 of section 102 of the state technology law, 36 as added by chapter 430 of the laws of 1997 and as renumbered by chapter 37 437 of the laws of 2004, are amended to read as follows: 38 2. The head of the office shall be the director of the office, who 39 shall serve as the chief technology officer for the state of New York 40 and shall be designated as management confidential in the noncompetitive 41 class in accordance with the civil service law. The director shall be 42 the chief executive officer of and in sole charge of the administration 43 of the office, with exception to the office established pursuant to 44 section one hundred two-a of this article and the committee established 45 pursuant to section one hundred four-a of this article. The director 46 shall be entitled to receive reimbursement for expenses actually and 47 necessarily incurred by [him or her] such director in the performance of 48 [his or her] such director's duties. 49 3. The director may, from time to time, create, abolish, transfer and 50 consolidate bureaus and other units within the office not expressly 51 established by law as [he or she] such director may determine necessary 52 for the efficient operation of the office, subject to the approval of 53 the director of the budget, with exception to the office established 54 pursuant to section one hundred two-a of this article and the committee 55 established pursuant to section one hundred four-a of this article.
A. 1205 6 1 § 5. This act shall take effect on the ninetieth day after it shall 2 have become a law.