In the meantime, Hochul said it was her “responsibility to take action and lead,” as “data center development threatens to hike up utility bills, deplete our natural resources, and create uncertainty for New Yorkers.”
“New York will lead the way in creating the strongest standards in the nation for data center development, ensuring that when companies succeed because of New York, New Yorkers succeed too,” Hochul said in a statement.
NY threatens to repeal tax giveaways
Possibly providing a blueprint for other state-wide bans, New York’s bold anti-AI stance was viewed as “a striking setback for artificial intelligence companies that politicians once courted for investment,” the Post reported. It comes after Maine’s governor vetoed a prior state-wide effort to temporarily ban construction out of concerns that Maine’s legislation didn’t exempt a favored project already underway.
Hochul is clearly taking a firmer stance against massive projects concerning New Yorkers. Although her office insists that she isn’t anti-AI, she believes that she must take steps to ensure responsible growth of the industry in New York, where electricity prices are among the highest in the US. On Tuesday, Hochul indicated that she also planned to repeal sales tax exemptions for data centers, which could influence other states that, prior to the AI backlash from constituents, leveraged the tax giveaways to lure investments from the AI industry.
