New York opens RAISE Act portal; frontier AI labs must register by January 2027

New York has activated the registration portal for its RAISE Act, kicking off enforcement of one of the most significant AI safety laws in the United States. According to TechCrunch, the portal opened on Tuesday, and large frontier AI developers such as OpenAI and Anthropic now have until January 1, 2027 to register with the state.

What the law requires

The RAISE Act, New York's frontier AI safety and transparency measure, applies to companies classified as large frontier developers — defined as firms with more than $500 million in annual revenue. Covered companies must publish safety frameworks on their websites, report critical safety incidents to the state within 72 hours, and release public transparency reports covering their models.

Oversight falls to a newly created regulator, the Office of Digital Innovation, Governance, Integrity, and Trust (DIGIT), which will implement the act and supervise the large frontier labs it covers.

Penalties and enforcement

The financial stakes are substantial. TechCrunch reports that penalties can reach $1 million for a single violation and $3 million for subsequent violations. The state can also pursue enforcement actions against companies that skip registration, although a spokesperson declined to describe what those actions would involve.

Governor Kathy Hochul framed the law sharply at a press briefing, saying that technology industry leaders present their AI vision as inevitable, urge everyone else to keep up, and treat collateral damage as an acceptable cost of winning the AI race.

A research center to back the regulator

Alongside the portal launch, Hochul announced the creation of the New York Center for AI Responsibility and Research, based at Binghamton University, part of the State University of New York. According to TechCrunch, the center will independently evaluate the safety, security, and operation of advanced AI systems and partner with DIGIT to review the safety frameworks companies submit. The center was first announced in January, backed by $55 million in donations and capital. Hochul described the overall effort as a national model for AI regulation that places communities above corporations and people above powerful technology.

Part of a broader state push

The RAISE Act is not New York's only AI law. A measure enforced since last year requires AI companion operators to periodically tell users they are talking to a bot and to make reasonable efforts to detect suicidal ideation and self-harm. In October, Hochul signed a separate chatbot safety law for minors that restricts deceptive human-like interactions, emotionally manipulative or sycophantic responses, and encouragement of suicide or disordered eating. That law takes effect June 1, 2027.

Other states are moving in parallel

New York is joining a small but growing set of states regulating frontier AI. California's SB 53, in effect since January, requires frontier labs to publish safety frameworks, put whistleblower protections in place, and report critical safety incidents within 15 days. Illinois's SB 315, which takes effect at the start of 2027, imposes similar requirements and adds independent safety compliance audits. Notably, New York's 72-hour incident reporting deadline is far tighter than California's 15-day window.

Why it matters

For frontier AI developers, the RAISE Act creates a hard compliance deadline: any company above the revenue threshold operating in New York must register, publish a safety framework, prepare to escalate incidents within 72 hours, and produce transparency reports — with penalties running into millions of dollars per violation. Because California and Illinois have adopted similar but not identical rules, labs now face a patchwork of differing reporting windows, framework requirements, and audit obligations across states, which raises compliance complexity and cost. New York is also pairing its regulator with an independent research center that has the technical capacity to scrutinize company submissions, making this more than a paperwork exercise. If the approach works, it could become a template that other states copy, accelerating the shift of AI governance from voluntary commitments to binding state law.