Establishes the position of chief artificial intelligence officer and such person's functions, powers and duties; including, but not limited to, developing statewide artificial intelligence policies and governance, coordinating the activities of any and all state departments, boards, commissions, agencies and authorities performing any functions using artificial intelligence tools; makes related provisions.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
933
2025-2026 Regular Sessions
IN SENATE(Prefiled)
January 8, 2025
___________
Introduced by Sens. GONZALEZ, GOUNARDES, JACKSON -- read twice and
ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on
Internet and Technology
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.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD01083-01-5
S. 933 2
1 (iv) Operate autonomously once deployed, regardless of whether
2 designed to allow human monitoring, oversight, intervention, or over-
3 ride.
4 (b) This definition shall not include any software used primarily for
5 basic computerized processes, such as calculators, spell check tools,
6 autocorrect functions, spreadsheets, electronic communications, or any
7 tool that relates only to internal management affairs such as ordering
8 office supplies or processing payments, and that do not materially
9 affect the rights, liberties, safety or welfare of any human.
10 8. "Automated decision-making system" shall mean any software that
11 uses algorithms, computational models, or artificial intelligence, or a
12 combination thereof, to automate, support, or replace human decision-
13 making and shall include, without limitation, systems that process data,
14 and apply predefined rules or machine learning algorithms to analyze
15 such data, and generate conclusions, recommendations, outcomes, assump-
16 tions, projections, or predictions. "Automated decision-making system"
17 shall not include any software used primarily for basic computerized
18 processes, such as calculators, spell check tools, autocorrect func-
19 tions, spreadsheets, electronic communications, or any tool that relates
20 only to internal management affairs such as ordering office supplies or
21 processing payments, and that do not materially affect the rights,
22 liberties, safety or welfare of any human.
23 § 2. The state technology law is amended by adding a new section 102-a
24 to read as follows:
25 § 102-a. Chief artificial intelligence officer; functions, powers and
26 duties. 1. There is hereby established the office of artificial intelli-
27 gence within the office. The head of such office shall be the chief
28 artificial intelligence officer and shall be appointed by the governor
29 with the advice and consent of the senate. The chief artificial intelli-
30 gence officer shall be in sole charge of the administration of the
31 office, and shall report to the executive department. The chief artifi-
32 cial intelligence officer shall be designated as management confidential
33 in the noncompetitive class in accordance with the civil service law.
34 The chief artificial intelligence officer shall have expertise in arti-
35 ficial intelligence, data privacy, and the technology industry.
36 2. The office of artificial intelligence shall have the following
37 functions, powers and duties:
38 (a) Develop statewide artificial intelligence policies and governance,
39 including but not limited to:
40 (i) Developing and updating state policy and guidelines on the use,
41 procurement, development, and deployment of artificial intelligence and
42 automated decision-making systems in a manner consistent with state
43 laws;
44 (ii) Developing and updating a handbook regarding the use, study,
45 development, evaluation, and procurement of systems that use artificial
46 intelligence, in a manner consistent with state and federal laws, and
47 national and international standards for use by the state's departments,
48 boards, commissions, agencies and authorities;
49 (iii) Developing a risk management plan, including procedures for
50 assessing and classifying risk levels, including, but not limited to,
51 pertaining to the operations of the state, data security and privacy,
52 and the rights, liberties, safety and welfare of any human for use of
53 artificial intelligence and automated decision-making systems by the
54 state's departments, boards, commissions, agencies and authorities; and
55 (iv) Setting governance standards for human oversight of artificial
56 intelligence and automated systems, and determining resource require-
S. 933 3
1 ments for responsible adoption, including, but not limited to developing
2 and deploying employee training programs for safe and responsible use of
3 artificial intelligence; and
4 (v) Ensuring public access requirements are established for the publi-
5 cation of information related to each state agency use of automated
6 decision-making systems and artificial intelligence;
7 (b) Coordinate the activities of any and all state departments,
8 boards, commissions, agencies and authorities performing any functions
9 using artificial intelligence tools;
10 (c) Coordinate and track state department, board, commission, agency
11 and authority procurement and planning in state programs;
12 (d) Investigate and assess what resources, monetary or otherwise, if
13 any, a department, board, commission, authority or agency requires to
14 adapt to the changes that artificial intelligence will bring to the
15 regulatory landscape and to adequately adopt and oversee the use of
16 artificial intelligence across its operations;
17 (e) Provide guidance to governmental entities in developing, designing
18 and deploying standards, mission, regulations, investments, practices,
19 systems pertaining to the use of artificial intelligence tools and auto-
20 mated decision-making systems, in a manner that protects the rights and
21 safety of individuals, including but not limited to employee training,
22 protecting privacy and data security, safeguarding against discrimi-
23 nation based on race, gender, ethnicity, religion, disability, sexual
24 orientation, or socioeconomic status, mitigating risks of misinformation
25 and manipulation, and impact on the human workforce;
26 (f) Recommend the replacement, disconnection or deactivation of any
27 application that utilizes artificial intelligence or any automated deci-
28 sion-making system and that demonstrates that deployment and use is
29 inconsistent with provisions of law or is otherwise harmful to the oper-
30 ations of the state, data security and privacy, or the rights, liber-
31 ties, safety, and welfare of any human;
32 (g) Study the implications of the usage of artificial intelligence for
33 data collection to inform testing and evaluation, verification and vali-
34 dation of artificial intelligence to ensure that artificial intelligence
35 will perform as intended, including when interacting with humans and
36 other systems, develop common metrics to assess trustworthiness that
37 artificial intelligence systems will perform as intended, and minimize
38 performance problems and unanticipated outcomes, protect against risks
39 to data security and privacy, and address the possibility of intentional
40 misuse of an artificial intelligence system;
41 (h) Submit a report annually to the temporary president of the senate
42 and the speaker of the assembly on progress, findings, studies and
43 recommendations regarding the use of artificial intelligence and auto-
44 mated decision-making systems in the various government agencies. Such
45 report shall also be made publicly available on the office of informa-
46 tion technology website. Where the chief artificial intelligence officer
47 makes a determination that such disclosure would result in a substantial
48 negative impact on health or safety of the public, infringe upon the
49 privacy rights of individuals, or significantly impair the state's abil-
50 ity to protect its information technology or operational assets, the
51 officer may redact such information, provided an explanatory statement
52 by which such determination was made is published along with the redact-
53 ed report. The provisions of this subdivision shall not be deemed to
54 require or authorize the disclosure of confidential information or trade
55 secrets; and
S. 933 4
1 (i) Investigate and conduct periodic audits of any department's,
2 board's, commission's, agency's or authority's use of artificial intel-
3 ligence tools or automated decision-making systems to ensure:
4 (i) departments, boards, commissions, agencies and authorities devel-
5 op, acquire and use such tools or systems that comply with the constitu-
6 tion, state and federal laws;
7 (ii) ensure that any benefit a department, board, commission, agency
8 or authority receives by using such tools or systems outweighs any risk
9 in using that automated system;
10 (iii) ensure that each such tool or system is secure, protected and
11 resistant to circumstances in which that automated system faces any
12 systematic vulnerability, manipulation or malicious exploitation; and
13 (iv) nothing in this section shall be construed as restricting the
14 artificial intelligence officer's or any state department's, board's,
15 commission's, authority's or agency's access to:
16 (1) conduct any internal investigation aimed at developing, improving
17 or repairing any product, service or technology,
18 (2) prevent, detect, protect, respond, investigate, report to any
19 person responsible for any security incident, identity theft, fraud,
20 harassment, malicious or misleading activity or illegal activity, or
21 (3) preserve the integrity or security of any system.
22 3. To effectuate the purposes of this section, the chief artificial
23 intelligence officer may request and receive from any department, divi-
24 sion, board, bureau, commission or other agency of the state or any
25 political subdivision thereof or any public authority, staff and other
26 assistance, information, and resources as will enable the office of
27 artificial intelligence to properly carry out its functions, powers and
28 duties.
29 § 3. The state technology law is amended by adding a new section 104-a
30 to read as follows:
31 § 104-a. Advisory committee for state artificial intelligence policy.
32 1. There is hereby created in the division of broadband access an advi-
33 sory committee for state artificial intelligence policy. The chief arti-
34 ficial intelligence officer shall serve as chair of the committee. The
35 committee shall be composed of a minimum of seven representatives or
36 their equivalent selected from state agencies and appointed by the
37 governor, provided that no more than one member shall be appointed from
38 a single agency, and provided further that the director shall serve as
39 an ex-officio member of the committee. In addition, one member shall be
40 appointed by the speaker of the assembly, one by the temporary president
41 of the senate, and two members to be appointed by the governor at the
42 recommendation of the two largest organizations in the state represent-
43 ing municipal leadership.
44 2. All members of the advisory committee shall serve at the pleasure
45 of their appointing authority. The members of the committee shall
46 receive no compensation for their services, but shall be allowed their
47 actual and necessary expenses incurred in the performance of their
48 duties.
49 3. No member of the advisory committee shall be disqualified from
50 holding any other public office, nor forfeit any such office by reason
51 of appointment hereunder, notwithstanding the provisions of any general,
52 special or local law, ordinance or city charter, provided however that
53 members appointed by the governor, speaker of the assembly, or temporary
54 president of the senate shall be considered state officers and subject
55 to the provisions of paragraph (a) of subdivision eight of section
56 seventy-three of the public officers law.
S. 933 5
1 4. The advisory committee shall, at minimum, meet twice in each calen-
2 dar year, provided that additional meetings of the advisory committee
3 may be called by the chairperson at any time.
4 5. The advisory committee shall:
5 (a) Advise the chief artificial intelligence officer on best practices
6 for the use of artificial intelligence and automated decision-making
7 systems in agencies;
8 (b) Advise the chief artificial intelligence officer on state policy
9 for artificial intelligence and automated decision-making systems;
10 (c) Advise the chief artificial intelligence officer on the current
11 state of the state in relation to competitiveness in artificial intelli-
12 gence, including the scope and scale of New York's investments in arti-
13 ficial intelligence research and development;
14 (d) Advise the chief artificial intelligence officer on improving the
15 workforce, including use in training, education and worker assistance in
16 relation to the use of artificial intelligence;
17 (e) Advise the chief artificial intelligence officer on leveraging
18 local resources to optimize and improve operations in various areas of
19 government operations, including but not limited to medical services,
20 cyber security, infrastructure, and recovery from natural disasters;
21 (f) Advise the chief artificial intelligence officer on opportunities
22 for local, regional, interstate, federal, and international cooperation
23 in artificial intelligence research activities, standards development
24 and regulations;
25 (g) Advise the chief artificial intelligence officer on strategies to
26 prevent and mitigate artificial intelligence-assisted misinformation
27 campaigns and the potentially harmful effects of artificial intelli-
28 gence;
29 (h) Advise the chief artificial intelligence officer on how the state
30 can leverage the substantial and growing expertise of the emerging tech-
31 nologies, such as artificial intelligence, in the long-term development
32 of public policies that affect the privacy, rights, and the use of arti-
33 ficial intelligence online;
34 (i) Advise the chief artificial intelligence officer on strategies for
35 the development of inter-governmental cooperation among agencies of the
36 federal, state, and local governments and cooperation; and
37 (j) Make periodic recommendations to the legislature on legislative or
38 regulatory changes.
39 § 4. Subdivisions 2 and 3 of section 102 of the state technology law,
40 as added by chapter 430 of the laws of 1997 and as renumbered by chapter
41 437 of the laws of 2004, are amended to read as follows:
42 2. The head of the office shall be the director of the office, who
43 shall serve as the chief technology officer for the state of New York
44 and shall be designated as management confidential in the noncompetitive
45 class in accordance with the civil service law. The director shall be
46 the chief executive officer of and in sole charge of the administration
47 of the office, with exception to the office established pursuant to
48 section one hundred two-a of this article and the committee established
49 pursuant to section one hundred four-a of this article. The director
50 shall be entitled to receive reimbursement for expenses actually and
51 necessarily incurred by [him or her] such director in the performance of
52 [his or her] such director's duties.
53 3. The director may, from time to time, create, abolish, transfer and
54 consolidate bureaus and other units within the office not expressly
55 established by law as [he or she] such director may determine necessary
56 for the efficient operation of the office, subject to the approval of
S. 933 6
1 the director of the budget, with exception to the office established
2 pursuant to section one hundred two-a of this article and the committee
3 established pursuant to section one hundred four-a of this article.
4 § 5. This act shall take effect on the ninetieth day after it shall
5 have become a law.
