New York Responsible AI Safety and Education Act: Scope, Definitions, Transparency, and Disclosure

Scope of NY RAISE Act

The New York RAISE Act shall only apply to frontier models that are developed, deployed, or operating in whole or in part in New York. The New York RAISE Act addresses requirements for large frontier developers and frontier developers.

NY RAISE Act Definitions

Frontier model means a foundation model that was trained using a quantity of computing power greater than 10^26 integer or floating-point operations. The quantity of computing power described in the immediately preceding sentence shall include computing for the original training run and for any subsequent fine-tuning, reinforcement learning, or other material modifications the developer applies to a preceding foundation model.

Foundation model means an AI model that is all of the following.

• Trained on a broad data set;
• Designed for generality of output; and
• Adaptable to a wide range of distinctive tasks.

Artificial intelligence model means an engineered or machine-based system that varies in its level of autonomy and that can, for explicit or implicit objectives, infer from the input it receives how to generate outputs that can influence physical or virtual environments.

Deploy means to make a frontier model available to a third party for use, modification, copying, or combination with other software, excluding making a frontier model available to a third party for the primary purpose of developing or evaluating the frontier model. Frontier developer means a person who has trained, or initiated the training of, a frontier model, with respect to which the person has used, or intends to use, at least as much computing power to train the frontier model as would meet the technical specifications for a frontier model hereunder.

Person means an individual, proprietorship, firm, partnership, joint venture, syndicate, business trust, company, corporation, limited liability company, association, committee, or any other nongovernmental organization or group of persons acting in concert.

Large frontier developer means a frontier developer that together with its affiliates collectively had annual gross revenues in excess of $500 million in the preceding calendar year.

Affiliate means a person controlling, controlled by, or under common control with a specified person, directly or indirectly, through one or more intermediaries.

Catastrophic risk means a foreseeable and material risk that a frontier developer's development, storage, use, or deployment of a frontier model will materially contribute to the death of, or serious injury to, more than 50 people or more than $1 billion in damage to, or loss of, property arising from a single incident involving a frontier model doing any of the following.

• Providing expert-level assistance in the creation or release of a chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear weapon;
• Engaging in conduct with no meaningful human oversight, intervention, or supervision that is either a cyberattack or, if the conduct had been committed by a human, would constitute the crime of murder, assault, extortion, or theft, including theft by false pretense; or
• Evading the control of its frontier developer or user.

Catastrophic risk does not include a foreseeable and material risk from any of the following.

• Information that a frontier model outputs if the information is otherwise publicly accessible in a substantially similar form from a source other than a foundation model;
• Lawful activity of the federal government; or
• Harm caused by a frontier model in combination with other software if the frontier model did not materially contribute to the harm.

Property means tangible or intangible property.

Frontier AI framework means documented technical and organizational protocols to manage, assess, and mitigate catastrophic risks.

Model weight means a numerical parameter in a frontier model that is adjusted through training and that helps determine how inputs are transformed into outputs.

Critical safety incident means any of the following.

• Unauthorized access to, modification of, or exfiltration of the model weights of a frontier model that results in death or bodily injury;
• Harm resulting from the materialization of a catastrophic risk;
• Loss of control of a frontier model causing death or bodily injury; or
• A frontier model that uses deceptive techniques against the frontier developer to subvert the controls or monitoring of its frontier developer outside of the context of an evaluation designed to elicit this behavior and in a manner that demonstrates materially increased catastrophic risk.

Office means an office within the New York department of financial services, which shall report to the New York superintendent of financial services and is tasked with implementation of the New York RAISE Act. The office is authorized to adopt rules and regulations to implement the provisions of the New York RAISE Act as needed.

NY RAISE Act Transparency Requirements

Large Frontier Developer Disclosure

Except as otherwise provided herein, no large frontier developer may develop, deploy, or operate a frontier model, in whole or in part, in New York without having a current disclosure statement filed with the office and paying the required share. The disclosure statement shall be filed in the form and the manner prescribed by the office and shall contain all the information required by the office. It shall be renewed every 2 years, whenever ownership of the frontier model is transferred or whenever there is a material change to the information reported in the previously filed disclosure statement, whichever occurs earlier. Such disclosure statement shall identify the following.

• The identity of the large frontier developer and all names under which such large frontier developer conducts business;
• The address of the principal place of business and the address of each office it maintains in New York;
• In the event such large frontier developer or the ultimate parent of such large frontier developer is a privately or closely held company, a list of all persons or entities that beneficially own a 5 percent or greater interest in such large frontier developer at the time of the filing of the disclosure statement and a list of persons who formerly beneficially owned a 5 percent or greater interest in such owner or its predecessors in the preceding 5 years. In the event such owner or the ultimate parent is a publicly traded company, such owner shall file a list of all persons or entities that beneficially own a 50 percent or greater interest in the large frontier developer at the time of registration; and
• The name and contact information of a point of contact, secondary contact, and tertiary contact for such large frontier developer. Such point of contact shall be responsible for receiving inquiries relating to the New York RAISE Act from the office or other governmental entities.

Large frontier developers shall be assessed in pro rata shares by the New York Department of Financial Services to defray the operating expenses, including all direct and indirect costs, of administering the obligations imposed by the New York RAISE Act.

If any person develops, deploys, or operates a large frontier model in part in New York without a current disclosure filed with the office as required hereby, submits false information in its disclosure, or fails to timely pay any assessment required by this the New York RAISE Act, in addition to any other penalty or liability that may be imposed under the New York RAISE Act, the office may, after notice and hearing, levy the following civil penalties, fees, and costs.

• A civil penalty of $1,000 for each day the entity fails to file a disclosure as required hereby or fails to correct false information; and
• An amount equal to the assessments owed.

The office shall maintain and publish a list of large frontier developers who have filed disclosure statements; however, such publication shall not include contact information.