New York creates board to expand use of emerging technologies

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul has established an Emerging Technology Advisory Board (Board) to advance the state’s goals to become a hub for growth and innovation. The Board will be an independent group of industry leaders that will provide expertise and insights on emerging technologies – prioritizing artificial intelligence (AI) breakthroughs.

The Board will help guide the state’s economic development and decision-making framework, providing critical expertise for integrating and progressing emerging technology sectors. The Board will prioritize three goals:

• Develop recommendations to grow the state’s AI ecosystem and create an environment to facilitate AI business and startup venture growth.
• Attract and train a diverse and equitable tech talent pool and foster an accessible cutting-edge job market.
• Identify emerging technology opportunities and create a foundation for upcoming technology sectors.

Two tech CEOs – Arvind Krishna and Tarika Barrett, Ph.D. – will co-chair the board. These two leaders will oversee the group’s efforts to boost the state’s innovation initiatives and emerging technology ecosystem. On June 13, the remaining members of the Board were announced, composed of 18 leaders from nonprofits and industries including AI, advanced manufacturing, finance and biotechnology.

The Board is New York’s latest endeavor to promote innovation growth and AI technology adaptation. In January 2024, the state’s Office of Information Technology Services (ITS) issued a pioneering AI policy that established the standards by which state agencies evaluate and adopt AI systems to serve the public.

In addition to the AI policy, the state invested $275 million to establish the Empire AI Consortium. The Consortium will launch a state-of-the-art AI computing center to promote AI research and development and advance cutting-edge technologies. The organization will increase collaboration between the state’s top seven research institutions to provide resources to accelerate AI development at a scale that individual universities could not achieve.