The New York Center for AI Responsibility and Research, based at the State University of New York (SUNY), Binghamton, will bring together more than 80 scientists from institutions across the state. Its mission combines independent testing, foundational research and training for a new generation of AI safety specialists.
The Tuesday (Nov. 10) announcement came one week after the midterm elections underscored public anxiety about AI. About six in 10 voters said the technology would do more to hurt society, according to the AP Voter Poll, although only about one-quarter called AI a crucial voting factor. The findings provide a political backdrop for stronger safeguards without establishing that AI drove the election results.
“While the federal government fails to act, New York is leading the way on AI safety and holding Big Tech accountable,” Hochul said. “The stakes are too high to simply take AI companies at their word.”
The launch puts research capacity behind New York’s regulatory ambitions. The initiative comes amid the Trump administration’s reliance on voluntary safeguards and congressional inaction on federal AI rules. States including New York and California have moved further toward binding requirements, according to Politico.
Hochul first announced the center in January. Its funding includes a $30 million philanthropic gift from donors led by Bloomberg Co-Founder and Binghamton alumnus Tom Secunda, an initial $25 million SUNY research investment and state operating support. Researchers will use computing resources from Empire AI, New York’s $500 million public-private initiative.
Cornell Tech Dean and Vice Provost Greg Morrisett and Columbia University Executive Vice President for Research Jeannette Wing will serve as interim co-directors of the center. Participating researchers will continue working at their home institutions.
Their agenda includes developing tools, measurements and standards for evaluating increasingly capable systems, examining whether those systems behave as intended, and assessing their safety and security risks. An initial recruiting drive will target experts focused on foundational limits and mathematical theory, formal methods and verification, agentic and complex systems, hardware security and privacy, interpretability and alignment, and scientific AI and biosecurity.
“We need new techniques that can be applied to this new kind of system with swarms of autonomous agents acting independently and without control,” Wing told Politico.
The center’s work will connect directly with implementation of the RAISE Act, which takes effect Jan. 1. Hochul’s office also announced an online registration portal administered by the Office of Digital Innovation, Governance, Integrity, and Trust, known as DIGIT.
Large frontier AI developers operating in New York must register by Jan. 1 and begin publishing safety frameworks on their websites in January. Frontier developers also face requirements to publish model transparency reports and report critical safety incidents within 72 hours.
At the state’s request, the center can provide expertise, assessments and evidence to inform oversight. It will coordinate with DIGIT to review developers’ published safety frameworks and recommend ways to strengthen requirements.
That arrangement could give regulators an independent basis for evaluating companies’ safety claims and identifying shortcomings in their disclosed safeguards. The center’s remit also includes supporting responsible AI applications in medicine, scientific research and critical infrastructure.
Its reach will have limits, however. Politico reported that researchers will have access to publicly disclosed information, while companies’ internal models under development remain private. The initiative therefore strengthens the state’s ability to assess available evidence without ensuring visibility into every emerging risk.
For developers, January brings both new disclosure obligations and the prospect of expert scrutiny of those disclosures. Hochul’s office said it will explore additional ways to strengthen New York’s AI safety laws and regulations in the coming months.
