An Act to amend the general business law, the executive law, the state finance law and the education law, in relation to enacting the "digital fairness act" - Sections 7-9 ("AUTOMATED DECISION SYSTEM IMPACT ASSESSMENTS," etc.)

• Authority: New York
• Parent authority: State governments
• Jurisdiction: United States
• Collections: U.S. state and local documents
• Most recent activity: Proposed
• Most recent activity date: 2024-01-03

Risk subdomain coverage

Good coverage — Comprehensive governance measures or mitigations with clear procedures relating to the risk subdomain are explicitly described.

• Unfair discrimination and misrepresentation
• Unequal performance across groups
• Compromise of privacy
• Overreliance and unsafe use
• Loss of human agency and autonomy
• Governance failure
• Lack of capability or robustness
• Lack of transparency or interpretability

Minimal coverage — Brief mention but no specific mitigations, recommendations or governance measures relating to the risk subdomain are described.

• AI system security vulnerabilities
• False or misleading information
• Disinformation, surveillance, and influence at scale
• Cyberattacks, weapon development or use

All other risk subdomains had no coverage in this document.

Risk Coverage Summary

The document has good coverage of approximately 10-12 subdomains, with strong focus on discrimination and bias (1.1, 1.3), privacy compromise (2.1), security vulnerabilities (2.2), malicious use for surveillance (4.1), overreliance (5.1), loss of agency (5.2), governance failure (6.5), lack of robustness (7.3), and lack of transparency (7.4). Coverage is concentrated in fairness, transparency, accountability, and human oversight domains.

Sector coverage

Good coverage — Comprehensive governance measures or mitigations with clear procedures relating to the sector are explicitly described.

• Public Administration (excl. National Security)

All other sectors had no coverage in this document.

Sectors Summary

This document governs automated decision system use exclusively within the Public Administration sector. It applies to all New York State government agencies, political subdivisions, and public benefit corporations across all their functions. The document does not regulate private sector use of AI in any industry.

Legislative Status

Hard Law

Legislative Status Summary

This is a binding legislative act with mandatory requirements, enforcement mechanisms, penalties, and legal remedies. The document uses mandatory language throughout ('shall', 'must', 'required') and establishes specific legal obligations for state agencies with enforcement through payment prohibitions and private rights of action.

Actors

Proposer

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor
• Summary: This is a legislative act ('An Act to amend the general business law, the executive law, the state finance law and the education law') proposed by the New York State Legislature to establish the Digital Fairness Act.

Target

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor, AI_Deployer
• Summary: The document explicitly targets state government entities that purchase, deploy, or use automated decision systems, as well as vendors who provide such systems. The requirements apply to government agencies as deployers of AI systems.

Enforcer

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor
• Summary: Multiple government bodies are designated with enforcement authority including conducting audits, maintaining qualified assessor lists, approving system acquisitions, and adjudicating violations. Courts have jurisdiction to award damages and injunctive relief.

Monitor

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor, Affected_Stakeholder
• Summary: The document establishes comprehensive monitoring through annual audits, third-party impact assessments, public comment periods, and ongoing review by multiple government agencies. The public and affected communities have formal roles in monitoring through comment periods and community engagement.

AI Lifecycle Stages

Lifecycle stages covered by the documents, as defined in the OECD Framework for the Classification of AI Systems

• Plan and Design
• Collect and Process Data
• Build and Use Model
• Verify and Validate
• Deploy
• Operate and Monitor

AI Lifecycle Summary

The document covers multiple lifecycle stages with primary focus on Verify and Validate, Deploy, and Operate and Monitor stages. It mandates impact assessments before deployment, requires ongoing monitoring and audits, and establishes human review mechanisms for operational systems. The Plan and Design stage is implicitly covered through requirements for system documentation and design considerations in impact assessments.

Technical Scope

Terms relating to technical scope that are mentioned or implicitly referenced in the document

• Open Weight / Open Source

Technical Scope Summary

The document focuses on 'Automated Decision Systems' broadly defined as software designed to aid or replace human decision-making. It does not explicitly mention AI models, AI systems, frontier AI, general purpose AI, foundation models, generative AI, or compute thresholds. The scope is functional rather than technical, focusing on systems that impact human welfare and rights regardless of underlying technology.