New York Opens AI Portal; OpenAI, Anthropic Must File by Jan 1

New York opened its frontier AI developer registration portal Tuesday, giving labs with more than $500 million in annual revenue until January 1, 2027 to file under the state's RAISE Act. TechCrunch reports that OpenAI and Anthropic are explicitly among those on the hook, with penalties running up to $1 million for a first violation and $3 million for subsequent ones.

Covered developers must publish safety frameworks on their websites, report critical safety incidents within 72 hours, and issue public model transparency reports. A new Office of Digital Innovation, Governance, Integrity, and Trust, known as DIGIT, will implement the act and oversee the labs. A companion New York Center for AI Responsibility and Research, which Governor Kathy Hochul first announced in January with $55 million in donations and capital, will independently evaluate advanced systems and work with DIGIT to review companies' safety frameworks.

"Tech moguls tell us that their vision for AI is inevitable," Hochul said, framing the enforcement rollout as pushback. "We're building a national model for smart, sensible AI regulation, a model that puts communities above corporations."

New York is not acting alone. California's SB 53, which took effect in January, requires safety frameworks, whistleblower protections, and incident reporting within 15 days. Illinois' SB 315 kicks in at the start of 2027 with similar rules plus independent safety compliance audits. A separate New York chatbot safety law for minors takes effect June 1, 2027.