New York Attorney General Urges AI Whistleblowers to Come Forward

New York Attorney General Letitia James encouraged workers at artificial intelligence companies to confidentially report activity they think is dangerous or illegal to her office.

In a Thursday press release, James pointed to an online portal she said whistleblowers could use to contact state law enforcement. “Those developing AI have a responsibility to ensure their products are safe,” she said.

James’ appeal comes as leading AI labs issue increasingly stark warnings about the technology’s risks. Anthropic PBC Chief Executive Officer Dario Amodei and OpenAI Inc. CEO Sam Altman have both suggested that development of AI models should be slowed and called for greater regulatory oversight.

OpenAI has disclosed cases involving AI agents behaving in unexpected ways, while Anthropic has reported concerns involving its own advanced models. Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon resigned last week over safety concerns, saying that people building AI believe it could “kill us all by the end of the decade,” fueling calls for stronger safeguards.

The Trump administration has so far rejected calls for federal AI regulation, but New York and California have both passed state laws targeting the sector. New York’s law, which takes effect Jan. 1, requires frontier-model developers to report critical safety incidents to a new office within the Department of Financial Services within 72 hours.

Photo: New York Attorney General Letitia James joins Mayor Zohran Mamdani as they announce at a news conference that they are suing President Donald Trump’s administration over its policies, which they say, will drive immigrants and mixed-status families away from public benefits they can legally receive on September 14, 2026, in New York City. Bloomberg photo.