Regulon — NY-AB-11636 · NY A11636 (Frontier AI Third-Party Verification)

WHAT THIS BILL REGULATES · 3 REQUIREMENT TYPES

How Is This Bill Enforced

Enforcement Authority

Enforced by the New York Attorney General, who may bring a civil action for violations, including failure to comply with the third-party verification requirements of section 1425. The office designated under Article 44-B accredits verifiers and inspects unredacted reports. No private right of action.

Private Right of Action

No private right of action. Enforcement is exclusive to the designated authority.

Penalties

Civil penalty of up to $1,000,000 for a first violation and up to $3,000,000 per subsequent violation, determined by the severity of the violation, for failures including failure to comply with section 1425 third-party verification requirements.

Verbatim statutory text on the left; plain-language analysis and a per-section checklist on the right. Numbered markers cross-link to the matching checklist row.

Statutory Text

Analysis & Obligations

Gen. Bus. Law § 1420(17)

Definition of Third Party Verifier

17 17. "Third party verifier" means a person, other than an affiliate of a large frontier developer, who is retained, contracted, or otherwise engaged by a large frontier developer to verify such developer's compliance with such developer's frontier AI framework.

Section 1 adds a new subdivision 17 to the definitions section of Article 44-B, defining third party verifier as a person — other than an affiliate of a large frontier developer — engaged to verify the developer's compliance with its frontier AI framework. This definition is the anchor for the entire verification regime created by section 2.

Gen. Bus. Law § 1425

Third Party Verification

Developer

1 1 § 1425. Third party verification. 1. A large frontier developer shall annually retain, contract, or otherwise engage a third party verifier to produce a report assessing the following: (a) whether a large frontier developer has complied with its frontier AI framework as well as any instances of noncompliance with such framework; (b) where such AI framework may require additional clarity and detail in order to better assess compliance; (c) whether any redactions made by the large frontier developer pursuant to subdivision five of section fourteen hundred twenty-one of this article are in compliance with such subdivision; (d) whether any statements made by the large frontier developer to the public, office, attorney general, or to other governmental entities regarding catastrophic risk from such developer's frontier model, such developer's management of such risk, and/or such developer's compliance with such developer's frontier AI framework are inconsistent with the findings of the third party verifier's report.

2 1 2. A large frontier developer shall grant the third party verifier access to: (a) All materials submitted to the office pursuant to this article; (b) Unredacted versions of all documents published by the large frontier developer pursuant to section fourteen hundred twenty-one of this article; and (c) Any other materials reasonably necessary to perform the assessment provided in subdivision one of this section.

3 2 3. In retaining, contracting, or otherwise engaging a third party verifier, a large frontier developer shall not condition any payment or form of compensation to a third party verifier upon the results of such verifier's assessment.

4 2 4. Prior to January first, two thousand twenty-nine, a large frontier developer may retain, contract, or otherwise engage a third party verifier of their choosing, provided that such developer may not retain, contract, or otherwise engage a third party verifier with a financial stake in such developer, nor may they retain, contract, or otherwise engage a third party verifier in which such developer has a financial stake.

5 4 5. A large frontier developer shall retain the third party verifier's report provided in subdivision one of this section for a minimum of five years and shall allow the office or the attorney general to inspect an unredacted version of such report upon request.

6 5 6. The third party verifier shall conspicuously publish a summary of the verifier's report within sixty days of such report's completion. Such publication shall not contain any information that would jeopardize the large frontier developer's trade secrets, cybersecurity, public safety, or the national security of the United States.

7 6 7. A large frontier developer shall clearly and conspicuously publish a link on its internet website to the summary provided in subdivision six of this section within fifteen days of a third party verifier's publication of such summary.

8 8. No later than July first, two thousand twenty-eight, the office shall adopt regulations to: (a)(i) Establish a process by which the office accredits third party verifiers under this section. Such accreditation shall be conditioned upon: (A) sufficient expertise amongst the personnel retained, contracted, or otherwise engaged by the third party verifier to verify frontier developers' compliance with such developers' frontier AI frameworks, including expertise in corporate compliance and technical expertise in foundation and frontier model safety; and (B) the verifier's ability to address potential conflicts of interest that may undermine the integrity, quality, and/or independence of such verification. (ii) Such regulations shall also prescribe the circumstances under which and procedure by which the office may revoke accreditation. (iii) The office may place requirements on accredited third party verifiers as they deem reasonably necessary to ensure the integrity, quality, and/or independence of the verification process, including prohibiting the employees of the third party verifier from being employed by a frontier developer for a period of time after such employees' employment with the third party verifier; (b) Stipulate the level of access that large frontier developers must provide to third party verifiers to enable a meaningful assessment of compliance with such developers' frontier AI frameworks; (c) Ensure the protection of a large frontier developer's trade secrets and cybersecurity; (d) Stipulate the minimum amount of information that a third party verifier must include in its report of compliance assessment; and (e) Stipulate the required content and permissible redactions of summaries provided pursuant to subdivision six of this section.

9 3 9. On and after January first, two thousand twenty-nine, a large frontier developer may retain, contract, or otherwise engage no third party verifier for the annual report required in subdivision one of this section other than a third party verifier who has been accredited by the office pursuant to regulations promulgated under subdivision eight of this section.

10 10. The office shall review the regulations promulgated under this section on an annual basis. Where the office deems necessary, the office shall update such regulations to account for changes in the third party verifier market, any verification gaps that have been identified over the course of implementation, and/or changes to scientific understanding of catastrophic risk that have developed since the last update to such regulations.

Section 1425 is the operative heart of the bill. It requires every large frontier developer to annually engage an independent third-party verifier to produce a report assessing compliance with the developer's frontier AI framework, the appropriateness of public redactions, and the consistency of the developer's public catastrophic-risk statements with the verifier's findings. Developers must grant the verifier access to submitted materials, unredacted published documents, and any other materials reasonably necessary for the assessment.

To preserve independence, developers may not condition verifier compensation on the assessment's results and, before January 1, 2029, may not engage a verifier in which either party has a financial stake. On and after that date, only verifiers accredited by the designated office may perform the annual report. Reports must be retained five years and made available for inspection by the office or Attorney General; verifiers must publish a public summary within sixty days, and developers must post a link to that summary within fifteen days.

The section also directs the office to adopt accreditation and access regulations by July 1, 2028 and to review those regulations annually — forward-looking rulemaking delegations rather than immediate compliance duties.

Compliance actions 6 items

Large frontier developers must annually engage an independent third-party verifier to produce a report assessing framework compliance, redaction propriety, and consistency of public catastrophic-risk statements, and must grant the verifier access to all submitted materials, unredacted published documents, and any other materials reasonably necessary for the assessment.

S-03.5

Large frontier developers must not condition verifier compensation on the assessment's results and, before January 1, 2029, must not engage a verifier in which either the developer or verifier holds a financial stake.

S-03.5

On and after January 1, 2029, large frontier developers may engage only office-accredited third-party verifiers for the required annual compliance report.

S-03.5

Large frontier developers must retain each verifier report for at least five years and produce an unredacted version for inspection by the office or the Attorney General upon request.

G-01.3

Third-party verifiers must conspicuously publish a summary of the verifier's report within sixty days of completion, omitting information that would jeopardize the developer's trade secrets, cybersecurity, public safety, or U.S. national security.

G-02.3

Large frontier developers must clearly and conspicuously publish a link on their website to the verifier's public summary within fifteen days of its publication.

G-02.3

Gen. Bus. Law § 1428(1)

Attorney General Civil Penalties

1 1. The attorney general may bring a civil action to recover a civil penalty in an amount not to exceed one million dollars for a first violation and in an amount not to exceed three million dollars per subsequent violation, determined based on the severity of the violation where a large frontier developer fails to publish or transmit a compliant document required to be published or transmitted under this article, makes a statement in violation of subdivision four of section fourteen hundred twenty-one of this article, fails to report an incident as required by section fourteen hundred twenty-two of this article, fails to comply with its own frontier AI framework, or fails to comply with section fourteen hundred twenty-five of this article.

Section 3 amends the enforcement provision of Article 44-B to add failure to comply with the new section 1425 third-party verification requirements to the list of violations for which the Attorney General may seek civil penalties of up to $1,000,000 for a first violation and up to $3,000,000 per subsequent violation. This is an enforcement hook attaching to the section 1425 obligations rather than an independent compliance duty.

Public Officers Law § 87(2)(w)

FOIL Exemption for Verifier Reports

(w) is a report produced by a third party verifier under section fourteen hundred twenty-five of the general business law.

Section 4 amends the state Freedom of Information Law to exempt from disclosure any report produced by a third-party verifier under section 1425. This is a records-access carve-out that protects the confidentiality of the underlying verifier reports and imposes no compliance duty on regulated entities.

A11636 §§ 5–6

Severability and Effective Date

§ 5 § 5. Severability. If any clause, sentence, paragraph, subdivision, section or part of this act shall be adjudged by any court of competent jurisdiction to be invalid, such judgment shall not affect, impair, or invalidate the remainder thereof, but shall be confined in its operation to the clause, sentence, paragraph, subdivision, section, or part thereof directly involved in the controversy in which such judgment shall have been made.

§ 6 § 6. This act shall take effect on the thirtieth day after it shall have become a law; provided, however, that if article 44-B of the general business law, as added by chapter 96 of the laws of 2026, shall not have taken effect on or before such date then this act shall take effect thirty days after such article takes effect.

Sections 5 and 6 contain a standard severability clause and the effective-date provision. The act takes effect on the thirtieth day after becoming law, but if Article 44-B (the underlying frontier AI framework added by chapter 96 of 2026) has not yet taken effect, the act instead takes effect thirty days after that article takes effect. These are non-substantive provisions imposing no AI compliance duty.

Safety Harmful content prevention · self-harm escalation

3 items

S-03.5

Beginning Jan 1, 2029 On and after January 1, 2029, large frontier developers may engage only office-accredited third-party verifiers for the required annual compliance report.

Governance Risk management · accountability programs

3 items

G-01.3

Large frontier developers must retain each verifier report for at least five years and produce an unredacted version for inspection by the office or the Attorney General upon request.

G-02.3

Large frontier developers must clearly and conspicuously publish a link on their website to the verifier's public summary within fifteen days of its publication.

Passage Likelihood

Low

Status Introduced

Chamber No passage

Committee No action

Majority party Yes

Bipartisan No

Prior session None

Legislative History

2026-07-29 referred to science and technology

Sources

Full Text ↗

Entry Last Reviewed

2026-08-16

AI generated