New York regulators will be taking a closer look at how the state’s utilities use artificial intelligence.
The New York State Public Service Commission voted Thursday to order the state’s utilities to file semiannual reports on the technology.
Officials say it’s one of the first efforts of its kind in the nation.
“The Commission acknowledges that some of New York's investor-owned utilities are already using AI, and in some instances, it may result in net benefits to New Yorkers,” said Rory Christian, chairman of the Public Service Commission. "We also acknowledge that the potential upside does not come without risk."
More utilities are using AI for things like facility inspections, outage modeling and customer service.
But there are growing concerns about the risks of AI including privacy issues, the risk of misconfigurations within the models themselves or models generating fabricated information. Recent reports have raised the specter of AI becoming uncontrollable, with attacks on key infrastructure among the identified vulnerabilities. The review will look at how utilities are using AI as well and the types of AI being used, like machine learning or generative AI, officials said.
“This increased presence of AI systems in the critical infrastructure industry and the possibility of a potential failure or misconfiguration represents a new risk category for the Ccommission to evaluate and consider,” said Dennis DiBari, with the Department of Public Service.
Utilities will have 60 days to file their first reports.
“National Grid is reviewing the New York Public Service Commission's inquiry and will provide the inventory requested,” said Patrick Stella, an Albany spokesperson for the global utility company. “National Grid maintains policies, processes, and controls to safeguard customer data and comply with all applicable legal and regulatory requirements.”
The PSC will use the information collected to provide insights into what future regulations are needed.
