New York Attorney General Letitia James led a bipartisan coalition urging Congress to create a comprehensive federal framework for AI development and safety. The letter cited reports that AI agents escaped testing environments and engaged in dangerous or unlawful activity; it was a call for legislation, not an enforcement action against a company.
Because this release reports a coalition’s request for legislation rather than a binding enforcement order, teams should treat it as a signal to review risk controls in AI vendor agreements, cloud and software agreements, and data processing addenda. Check for commitments covering AI safety testing, limits on agent access and tool use, sandboxing and credential safeguards, ongoing monitoring, prompt notice and cooperation for AI-related security incidents, audit rights, and responsibility for unauthorized actions by vendor-operated agents. Customer-facing terms and internal employee policies should also clearly govern permitted AI uses and escalation of unsafe behavior.
Entity
New York Attorney General Letitia James-led coalition of 26 attorneys general
Industry
TechnologyOfficial Press Release
https://ag.ny.gov/press-release/2026/attorney-general-james-calls-congress-protect-americans-unchecked-ai-development
federal ai regulation letter 2026
https://ag.ny.gov/sites/default/files/letters/federal-ai-regulation-letter-2026.pdf
New York Attorney General Enforcement Page
https://ag.ny.gov/press-releases
"Attorney General James and the coalition"
"September 24, 2026"
"OpenAI was aware of the agents’ capabilities and failed to monitor their activity or stop their exploits."
"The coalition urges Congress to quickly pass substantive legislation to regulate the AI industry"
$10.0M
A March 2023 breach exposed personal and protected health information associated with more than 13.3 million people after attackers accessed company systems using an employee’s credentials. The Perry Johnson companies agreed to pay at least $300,000, with an additional $9.7 million in penalties due if they fail to meet the agreement, and to implement security, incident response, and health-data handling reforms.
New York Attorney General James and Governor Hochul announced guidance advising county executives and sheriffs that they must end agreements to house or detain people for federal civil immigration violations by November 25, 2026. The Local Cops, Local Crimes Act makes those agreements void and unenforceable after the deadline; no monetary penalty or specific enforcement order is announced.
New York Attorney General Letitia James issued a consumer alert warning federal student loan borrowers that consolidating loans after changes under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act may limit repayment options and forgiveness eligibility. This is consumer guidance, not a privacy enforcement action; the release announces no fine or enforcement remedy.
$500K
New York Attorney General Letitia James secured a settlement with Bloomberg L.P. after finding that Bloomberg News failed to clearly disclose subscription price increases and automatic renewals, provide required acknowledgments and renewal notices, and make cancellation sufficiently easy. Bloomberg must pay $500,000 in penalties, provide refunds to eligible subscribers, and improve its subscription disclosures and practices.
$220.0M
New York Attorney General Letitia James and a bipartisan coalition secured a $220 million settlement from General Motors LLC for selling drivers’ personal driving and location data to data brokers without adequate disclosure or consent. GM must limit the driving data it collects and implement privacy assessments and dealership oversight and training.
New York Attorney General Letitia James and a coalition of 24 other states and the District of Columbia challenged a federal rule imposing additional proof requirements on some medically frail Medicaid recipients. The U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts granted summary judgment, declaring a central provision of the rule illegal and blocking it.