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Another event happening downtown is the Primary Venture Partner's annual New York City Summit, and this year, Bloomberg Tech co host Caroline Hyde is there and she is sitting down right now with the New York Governor, Kathy Hulkl. Caroline, I'll hand it over to.
You, Scarlet.
Thank you, and I can't think of a better person to be sitting down with about how AI is embraced by this state, by this city. Governor Hokel, thank you for being with us today. And I think of twenty twenty four when you first announce empower AI, when you think about being at the forefront of transformational change that AI is going to bring, what is your answer for what New York's competitive edge is.
This has taken us to a whole new level. This was important me. I'm a New Yorker, I'm compedive, I want to be number one. And so we saw the great potential from friends that I'd have in the industry. Tom Secunda and others brought an idea to me that we could have this incredible first of the nation partnership between academia, state government, and the private sector. So literally
the idea was talked about over breakfast in October. I had in my state of the state three months later and was able to secure four hundred million dollars from the legislature. We had to persuade them that this was in the public interest, and I will tell you we now had another ninety million or over almost five hundred million dollars invested and has exceeded all expectations.
And so it is.
I put together an Emerging Technologies task Force that is co chaired by the CEO of IBM as well as the CEO of Girls Who Code, because I want to make sure that we're diversifying the workforce. I want to see more women. I want to seek of color, and that's why New York is such an attractive place all across the world. But in our AI space, I wanted Bill used to be the researchers, the thinkers, the innovators
of solving some of the society's greatest problems. So I literally spent a day on this weekend up in Buffalo, my home, saw what they're doing there, and part that made me so proud was that we're about to announce in a few months our AI Beta, which is eleven times more powerful than what I already have now with our alpha we just we just launched, so we're already going to next level opportunities in a very short time.
But they're also bringing in more people to our states, and this was important, more of the brilliant people the professors were attracting from other universities. They have so many students who want to become part of this, not just you be because this is for all of our universities across the state. They all want a piece of this because they can do their research and their PhD work with power that no other student in the country will have.
About talent there, and you have lent in particular to the labor.
That's needed, energies needed.
How do we have to embrace fossil fuels and nuclear if we're going to have the resources for them.
I have in all the above approach. But first of all, one of the reasons EMPIREI is housed up with the University of Buffalo is that I have enormous amount of supply of hydro electric power from the Niagara plant there that powers about twenty five percent of our energy. Another twenty five percent of our upstate energy is nuclear already. I want to add more nuclear. I'll be the first governor in a generation, and a very rare Democratic governor who says, I can't assume that we're going to have
the power available now. I need sustainability, reliability, and affordability, and I'm going to do that. And we're also looking at you know, natural gas and other areas. But we have wind and solar.
You vote for wind, I say winding, Yeah, say win. What did you say to President Trump's keep wind?
I said that you have fifteen hundred people who just lost their jobs when you shut it down. This will power five hundred thousand homes of the clean energy in Brooklyn. But back to those those people who lost their jobs, mister president, a lot of them are from Long Island. I think a lot of them voted for you. So why don't you tell them that we'll lift the stop work order, stop this poor company from heriaging fifty million dollars a week, get them back going again, and we
are successful. But I also said I'm looking at all the above approach to energy. So work with me, find a faster way to get me nuclear too, mister president. Because seven of the ten years that it takes to get nuclear approvals is at the federal government level. He said, I'll look at my streamline processes, you streamline yours, and let's get this done sooner.
What's interesting is you're putting people first, and you've been very vocal about the safety element of AI.
I want to go back to what's on your desk at the moment the RAYS Act? Are you going to sign it off?
Because this is about protecting foundational models and ensuring that they're secure and their security.
Right right, it's I'm looking at I have to be honest. Our policy is and when there's a bill on my desk, we don't talk about it until I'm ready to sign. I have over nine hundred bills or on my desk. They have to be signed by the or vetoed by the end of the year. So it's obviously we're looking
at dead seriously. But we have been leaders in protecting our shouldn't in particular from AI chatbots and making sure that when someone starts to talking about suicidal thoughts that the platform will provide them resources and support, and just trying to find different ways because this is the whole new front here, right It's hard to know what the challenges and the problems are going to be when.
You're just starting out.
But we have to be that forward thinking. I have to protect New Yorkers as well as our businesses. But let the tech industry know this is the place you want to be. We're innovative, we're smart, we have the talent, and I'll make sure we break down barriers to your success.
Is they're a worry from those foundational LLM creators, the likes of open AI.
About that regulation, well.
I think people prefer I have a federal regulation. I mean, think about the responsibly of the federal government. I mean, these companies don't know boundaries. I mean they're all over the plannet, so it's hard when one state has a set of rules, another state does another state. I don't think that's a model for or inspiring innovation. But a lot of companies should be adopting these internal controls themselves. That's always one step they can take to assure people
in government that they've done what is necessary. But in the absence of that, Doteral Garnment needs to be looking at these policies as well.
These startups, these foundational and M model creators and big business also really care not just about regulation but about taxation. And with the new bill coming from President Trump, there might be.
A hole coming here the next year or so.
How are you thinking about that landscape for the people we want to come.
Here and build AI for the empire? Right right?
I am very sensitive to competitiveness with other states. I've said I don't want to raise income taxes on high net worth people. I want them to know that New York is a place where we want to foster innovation.
Be open to your success, because your success means you're hiring more people, you're putting more human wor up, and to the extent that you're willing to seek out future employees in some of the neighborhoods that have been underserved, Like this is what Micron is doing as part of our deal to get the largest semiconductor of manufacturing facility investment in American history and one of great realu is right out of Syracuse. I landed that my early days
as governor. I said, I'm not losing this one. But part of it is they have to have a green energy policy, sustainability, and they're also looking for talent and changing curriculums in the schools around Syracuse, some of the neighborhoods that your kids would never have a chance to have these jobs and Micron because there are a lot of strong sense of social responsibility, they're partnering with us
to help that. So companies that show that kind of enlightenment to me will open a lot of doors for them. You take care of my people will take care of you.
And you're thinking about that from a whole state perspective.
But some of the founders and CEOs I speak to you here in the city, Well, they're worried about the next leader of the city. They're thinking about the mayoral candidate. They're thinking about Mabdaney in particular, and he's we've got high tax ideas. How are you convincing them to stay here in the state.
Well, they need to know. One thing is that the City of New York, as powerful and mighty as it is, it's still a subdivision of the state. So any tax increase has to come across my desk first. So I will work with whoever the mayor is as long as they want to help foster my policies, which is pro growth, pro business, and if it's Mandami. I will work closely with him to help him understand that when we want to solve society's problems, and there are many, that we
also have the resources to do it. And so that means letting people know that we appreciate you being here. You're building companies, you're creating wealth, you're hiring people, you're supporting our cultures and our philanthreyes, and that we welcome you to be here and know that this is your home. So I'll continue on that effort, but we do have a lot of challenges on affordability. I think he hit a nerve. He hit a real nerve, which is why people want at this point in the polls are showing
an inclination towards supporting him. Is because he's talked about what I've been talking about for a long time, is that people feel like they're just not getting ahead.
Yeah, well, a sensitive question.
And I know you say time and time again you don't want to influence the vote, but would you lend him your endorsements?
I'm having conversations about all kinds of because there are a lot of very strong philosophical differences. I am a staunch capitalist and so I need to know that people can have a certain philosophy, but you got to govern in reality. And the reality is that this is the financial center of the world. We want to make sure that this is known as the tech center of the world, the innovation capital, and I want to make sure we
inspire people to come here. Where I do have fear is that the policy is out of Washington with Donald Trump. He's going to stimy that because forty seven percent of new startups in the tech space are founded by people who are foreign born. So if those students stop coming to our universe cities and we stop attracting people who are the most brilliant in the world, they don't feel that there's an open door for them to be here
in the state of New York. Well, they're welcome here, but not in our country, and there's barriers to that. That's something we have to overcome, and I'm really fearful about that long term effect of that on our ability to remain competitive with the rest of the world. When these people are being recruited, people who are already here to go to other countries upon graduation or not come here in the first place, how do we overcome that and that's what troubles me greatly.
Very briefly, a way you could drive revenue casinos, would you have one hand in Manhattan.
I am not allowed to have my thumb on the scale, and that the way it's set up, there's all sorts of prohibitions, but it will drive money. I think it's going to be a real boost for tourism as well in the right place. So there'll be three of them, and so I'm looking forward very much to welcoming those dollars.
It's about tourism, it's about talent, it's about MPII.
It's been wonderful having you.
Thank you very much. I appreciate that.
Govna Hookel. Back to you, Scarlett in the studio.
All right, thank you so much. Bloomber Tech co anchored Caroline Hi for that conversation with the New York Governor Kathy Hokel.