New Issue Brief: New York's LOADinG Act: Protecting Public-Sector Jobs from AI

The LOADinG Act was introduced to govern AI usage in state government. Four rounds of legislation later, it lacks any oversight rules and its labor protections extend to nearly every public employer in the state. 

NEW YORK, NY – Artificial intelligence could transform New York's state and local governments into unprecedentedly efficient institutions by automating routine tasks and reorganizing workflows. Yet a 2024 law meant to govern precisely this kind of AI government adoption has instead become its own barrier to it. 

In a new Manhattan Institute issue brief, technical writer Sean Speer analyzes the evolution of New York's Legislative Oversight of Automated Decision-Making in Government Act (LOADinG Act) across four enactments beginning in 2023. Speer finds that the law's AI transparency and accountability provisions were consistently enacted and subsequently repealed before taking effect, while the law's workforce protections were expanded with each revision. These protections, which bar state and local agencies from employing AI for tasks currently performed by employees, now encompass state agencies, school districts, public universities, counties, towns, and villages across New York State. 

The brief argues that many state and local governments will be inclined to confine AI to peripheral tasks that don't threaten work assignments, despite processing, intake, and administrative tasks representing the largest opportunity for improvementacross government. Speer warns that this model could spread to other state governments and to the private sector, and that doing so risks treating AI as a threat to be managed on behalf of workers rather than as a tool to improve government performance and the lives of citizens. 

Click here to read the full issue brief.