NY governor uses AI to review all state rules, finding outdated laws

During an interview on Bloomberg's Odd Lots podcast, New York Governor Kathy Hochul disclosed that her administration is deploying AI to systematically examine every rule, regulation, and policy in the state with the goal of identifying and removing outdated legislation. Hochul emphasized that this task would have consumed approximately five years of staff effort through conventional means, but AI enabled her team to complete it in a couple of months.

Among the antiquated laws surfaced by the review are requirements that now seem arbitrary or obsolete: a $25 fee to take a dog hunting, and a legal stipulation requiring pregnant people to obtain a permit before working after midnight. Hochul indicated that identifying and eliminating such outdated regulations will free state agencies from enforcing rules that no longer align with current needs or values. She framed the use of AI as a tool to strengthen the relationship between government and residents, stating, "I want a government that's not on your back but on your side, and using AI has been powerful to do that." Hochul further suggested that other levels of government should adopt similar practices and pledged to "make dramatic changes using the power of AI."

This regulatory modernization effort occurs against the backdrop of New York's recent decision to become the first state to impose a moratorium on new hyperscale data centers for up to a year. During the pause, state lawmakers plan to develop regulations designed to shield residents from escalating utility costs and safeguard natural resources from the strain imposed by massive data center operations. While the data center moratorium and Hochul's AI deployment may appear at odds, she has not characterized them as contradictory; rather, she frames AI as an asset for inside government, not a driver of external infrastructure expansion.

Governor Hochul's deployment of AI to audit state regulations reflects a pragmatic approach to modernizing government operations. The task of reviewing every law in a state is genuinely large-scale and labor-intensive; the body's comparison—five years of staff time compressed to a couple of months—illustrates the efficiency gain AI can deliver on purely mechanical review work. The examples Hochul cited (a hunting fee and a midnight work permit) are clearly vestigial, suggesting real outdated legislation exists in the state code.

This initiative sits alongside a seeming contradiction: Hochul recently signed a moratorium on new hyperscale data centers, citing concerns about utility costs and natural resources. However, the body does not frame her AI deployment as incompatible with that moratorium. Rather, she appears to distinguish between restricting large new data center infrastructure and using AI as a tool within government itself. Her comment—"I want a government that's not on your back but on your side"—positions AI as a means to reduce friction between residents and the state apparatus, a framing that may resonate beyond the immediate regulatory cleanup.

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