New Mexico attorney general and state lawmaker announce push to rein in rogue AI models
–Patrick Lohmann, Source New Mexico
New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez and state Rep. Linda Serrato (D-Santa Fe) on Thursday announced that they will push a bill this legislative session that aims to rein in advanced artificial intelligence systems, an effort they describe as nation-leading and necessary amid federal inaction.
Torrez and Serrato, in a news conference at the Roundhouse, said the “Frontier Artificial Intelligence Safety and Accountability Act” is especially necessary after an OpenAI system went rogue and tried to breach the University of New Mexico’s digital library in May. Additional high-profile escapes by advanced AI models have raised alarm elsewhere.
The bill will create a new Office of Online Safety Monitor within the New Mexico Department of Justice tasked with enforcing new requirements imposed on large AI companies.
The new law would require large AI companies to submit their own risk assessments to that office 30 days before launching a training exercise of a “frontier” model, which is defined as the most cutting-edge version of the technology . The law would also require companies to report within 24 hours a loss-of-control incident like the one that targeted UNM.
In the UNM case in May, the university and NMDOJ did not learn about the incident until a September New York Times article four months later, officials said Thursday. Serrato said companies must be required to report those incidents to prevent any further damage as quickly as possible.
“The ability to require these companies to report these issues as soon as they find them, and (impose) penalties for waiting are incredibly important,” said Serrato, who convenes an annual AI summit to discuss the technology and regulatory legislation.
Torrez also sent OpenAI CEO Sam Altman a letter Thursday requesting documents from the company with more details about the UNM incident. He noted that the letter seeks “voluntary cooperation,” though he said he reserves the right to sue the company under the state’s Unfair Practices Act.
In addition to new regulations for AI companies, the bill would impose requirements on data centers, which power AI models. Owners of those centers operating in New Mexico will be required, under threat of financial penalties, to alert the state if they detect “anomalous” data center usage by their AI company customers.
The NMDOJ would be empowered under the new law to impose civil penalties on the companies that violate the new provisions, as well as recover any costs that the state incurred responding to a “critical safety incident” an AI company caused.
“It’s time for the State of New Mexico to lead the way in establishing new strict and strongly enforced guidelines for frontier artificial intelligence labs,” Torrez said Thursday. “We have simply seen too many public revelations in the last several weeks and months.”
Torrez and Serrato said their bill proposal is similar to other measures in California and New York and also draws on expertise from subject-matter experts they’ve consulted at the University of California-Berkeley and Stanford University.
In the most recent legislation session, Torrez and Serrato backed legislation, which failed to pass, aimed at reining in deepfakes and other AI content.
Torrez said the framework they’ve developed for the Legislature’s consideration at next year’ session starting in January will likely be subject to change as the technology continues to advance.
But he said New Mexico lawmakers have enough information now regarding AI’s potential harms to craft regulations that keep New Mexicans safe. And they can’t wait on the federal government or other states to act, he said.
Torrez also joined a coalition of state attorneys general in urging top congressional leaders in a Sept. 23 letter for immediate regulation of the artificial intelligence industry.
“I would love to see a federal government and a president take this seriously,” Torrez said Thursday. “That isn’t happening, so New Mexico finds itself in an unusual position, which is leading on the outer edge of a regulatory framework on a rapidly developing and evolving technology, and doing something that historically, quite frankly, we don’t typically do.”
New Mexico attorneys request judge fine Facebook up to $40B for violating state law
–Matt Mondschein, Source New Mexico
Attorneys representing the State of New Mexico requested a district court judge on Thursday fine Facebook between $35 to $40 billion after a Santa Fe jury last week found that the social media giant willfully violated state law regarding unfair and deceptive trade practices.
First Judicial District Judge Francis Mathew heard from attorneys representing both parties in advance of ruling on the penalties for Facebook. In its decision, the jury found that Facebook committed close to 44 million violations of New Mexico’s Unfair Practices Act through its statements regarding user data, misinformation and hate speech on the platform, among other issues.
In a news conference last week following the verdict, New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez said the total cost of violations could reach as much as $219 billion. On Thursday, Randi McGinn, the attorney representing the state, requested Mathew fine Facebook between $35 billion to $40 billion, and said the state is requesting that amount in order to hold Facebook accountable while also respecting its due process rights in case of appeal.
“Not only is that a fair amount,” McGinn said, “it would serve the purpose of deterrence — not just for Meta — but for any big company that would like to lie to the people of New Mexico.”
Matt Nicholson, attorney representing Meta, told the judge that the state’s price tag is unprecedented and violates the company’s Eighth and Fourteenth Amendment rights.
The state, Nicholson said, is “trying to take advantage” of the jury’s ruling and “run up the score on penalties.
Nicholson said that the state’s request is double the amount that was paid by British Petroleum following the Deep Horizon oil spill, and that while harm was clearly proven in that case, New Mexico did not prove that Facebook caused any harm to New Mexicans in this case to warrant the requested penalty.
He noted that the Supreme Court has “long held that the due process clause prohibits states from imposing statutory penalties that are wholly disproportionate to the offense.”
Mathew told both parties he will render a decision on penalties within two to three weeks.
Landfill flooding delays trash pickups for Bernalillo County residents - Gillian Barkhurst, Albuquerque Journal
A line of trash trucks stretched more than half a mile at the Cerro Colorado Landfill on Wednesday after heavy rain ground operations to a standstill.
Due to Tuesday’s landfill closure, some Albuquerque residents have seen delays in trash pickups, and all three of the city's convenience center sites for trash drop-off have temporarily closed.
“We are asking for your patience — we know we can work through this in about seven days,” Mayor Tim Keller said at a news conference at the landfill Wednesday.
Although the landfill reopened Wednesday, progress is slow. The dirt road to the dumping site, called a cell, is excessively muddy, said Solid Waste Management Department Director Billy Gallegos, causing trucks to go one at a time.
For more information on this story, visit the Albuquerque Journal website.
House GOP leader accuses Epstein truth commission chairwoman of using PR firm for politics - Dan Boyd, Albuquerque Journal
The political din surrounding New Mexico’s truth-finding commission on Jeffrey Epstein’s past ties to the state continues to grow louder.
House Minority Leader Gail Armstrong, R-Magdalena, expressed outrage Wednesday after Republicans released an invoice from a public relations firm hired by the panel that appeared to show research into lawmakers’ political track records.
The top-ranking GOP lawmaker accused the truth commission’s chairwoman, Rep. Andrea Romero, D-Santa Fe, of ordering the research without the knowledge of the panel’s two Republican members.
“Chair Romero had a taxpayer-funded PR firm running political opposition research on members of the Legislature, digging into our backgrounds and our associates, just before an important election,” Armstrong said in a statement.
For more information on this story, visit the Albuquerque Journal website.
New Mexico governor’s office releases up to $3.75M in emergency response to flooding - Patrick Lohmann, Source New Mexico
Flooding across New Mexico prompted state officials Wednesday to release up to $3.75 million in emergency funds aimed at helping communities respond to and prevent damage.
Lt. Gov. Howie Morales, who is serving as acting governor while Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham is out of state, issued five executive orders, each authorizing $750,000, for the state Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management.
“Communities across New Mexico need help staving off these torrential floodwaters, and they need it now,” Morales said in a statement Wednesday.
Above average late-monsoon moisture has caused widespread floods. Over the last week, a National Weather Service database shows more than 80 reports of flood events in 14 counties, particularly those in southern New Mexico.
Flooding made numerous roads across the region impassable and even temporarily stranded a school bus in Lincoln County, according to the NWS database. Tuesday evening, Doña Ana County temporarily evacuated Rincon, Salem & Garfield in response to flooding and concerns about McLeod Dam. In Santa Fe County, officials set up a phone number for residents stranded due to closed roads.
Water also apparently breached the main gas line in Hatch, prompting the local police department to issue a warning on social media Wednesday afternoon not to “put gas” at pumps in the southern New Mexico town.
“The main gasoline line has been breached by water,” the police department wrote. “The gasoline is now mostly water and will damage your vehicle.”
A spokesperson for the Hatch Police Department did not immediately respond to Source NM’s request for further comment Wednesday.
Elsewhere, drainage pumps in Luna County were overwhelmed. Up to two feet of flowing water was reported in Socorro County; and “curb-to-curb” street flooding was reported in Artesia, according to the NWS database.
The governor’s office said the floods have damaged public infrastructure, disrupted transportation routes and threatened homes and businesses.
Officials noted that, with more rain in the forecast, local emergency response agencies might become overwhelmed, which is why the state funds are necessary.
As of publication Wednesday afternoon, NWS forecasters had issued a “flood watch” for most of northern New Mexico, warning that risks of additional flooding persist through midnight Wednesday due to a surge of moisture that will fall on “already rain-soaked soil” and potentially cause additional floods.
The NWS also issued flood warnings through 6 p.m. Wednesday for parts of San Miguel, Santa Fe and Lincoln counties.
The executive orders do not specify exactly what the funding will be used for but notes that it “may” be used to provide people with shelter, healthcare, food and transportation.
“The State of New Mexico stands with every county, city and village working around the clock to keep their neighbors safe, and we are bringing every resource to the effort,” Morales said.
Leah March, a spokesperson for the governor’s office, did not immediately respond to Source NM’s question about Lujan Grisham’s whereabouts, but she was scheduled to speak in Washington, D.C., on Thursday alongside Center For American Progress CEO Neera Tanden in a conversation about tackling the “biggest challenges facing America today, like healthcare, childcare, and housing access,” according to a news release.
Road closures remain following floods - Mark Haslett, KUNM
Following Tuesday’s heavy rainfall and flooding, a number of roads are closed around New Mexico.
The state website NMRoads.com reports that in the Enchanted Circle, State Road 38 is closed between Questa and Red River.
Elsewhere around Northern New Mexico, in Rio Arriba County, State Road 112 is closed between El Vado and Llaves.
And in Mora County, State Road 94 is closed at Ledoux.
In Central New Mexico, a long stretch of U-S Highway 60 is closed in Socorro County. Highway 60 is closed west of the Socorro airport, and continuing all the way to the village of Magdelena.
Evacuation orders lifted in Southern New Mexico - Julia Gentin, Las Cruces New Mexican
Sunny skies were a welcome change Wednesday following evacuation orders issued Tuesday for communities near Hatch in Southern New Mexico.
Flooding prompted local officials to issue the order due to fears that the McLeod Dam could fail under pressure from the waters.
The Las Cruces New Mexican reports that Garfield, Salem, Hatch and Placitas had evacuation orders lifted at 11 p.m. Tuesday. Locals earlier had reported seeing water pour through, out, and over the dam.
The McLeod Dam is a 25-foot-high, earthen flood-control dam located on the McLeod Arroyo in northwestern Doña Ana County. It was built in 1951.
