Whistleblower Reward Provisions Are Part of Proposed NYC Artificial Intelligence Safety Regulations: Neil Getnick Testimony to NYC Council Explains How to Make Them a Success
NYC proposed AI safety legislation contains whistleblower provisions to reward individuals who come forward with information regarding AI regulatory violations. Neil Getnick testified before the NYC Council on how to ensure the whistleblower provisions, if enacted, are a success.
On October 5, 2026, Getnick Law Managing Partner Neil Getnick testified at a hearing before the New York City Council to address whistleblower reward provisions in legislative proposals to protect New Yorkers from the potential risks of artificial intelligence (AI). The proposed legislation is designed to better safeguard and regulate the rapidly evolving world of AI technology. As the New York City Council explained in a news release announcing the hearing, the proposals “respond to the growing concerns that advanced and frontier AI model development could pose potentially catastrophic risks without additional safeguards and oversight.”
The October 5 hearing was a rare “Committee of the Whole,” in which all 51 members of the Council are called to convene. The Committee heard from AI industry leaders (including officials from AI companies Anthropic, Open AI, Google, and Meta); leading national experts in AI safety, technology, and consumer protection; City agencies and elected officials; and members of the public. The lead-off witness was Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon, who resigned from the company in September, stating that AI technology “could kill us all by the end of the decade.” Highlighting the importance of AI-regulation, Mr. Coxon told the Council that “on the current path . . . it is more likely than not that humanity loses control to these AIs, and it could end in human extinction.”
The Council’s lead legislative proposal is Intro. 2602, which would require third-party validation of any AI system that a business markets, sells, or deploys in New York City. This validator, in turn, would be tasked with verifying the AI system based on a number of metrics, including data quality, bias, data privacy, security, and others. The legislation would also require all New York City AI systems to have a “kill switch,” meaning a human override that can shut it down.
Intro. 2605 sets forth the whistleblower reward provisions that would apply to all of the AI legislative proposals. According to the news release, the law “would be a first-in-the-nation approach to allow individual whistleblowers to receive a portion of the fines or penalties recovered from artificial intelligence companies that violate applicable laws, creating an incentive for individuals to report bad actors or major violations.” Whistleblower complaints regarding AI violations would go through New York City’s Department of Consumer and Worker Protection.
Whistleblowers with information about violations are often key to the government’s ability to detect and combat wrongdoers. Given the high stakes of AI regulation, it is essential that the proposed whistleblower provisions be designed for success. At the hearing, Getnick laid out key elements shared by effective whistleblower programs. Getnick also provided more extensive written testimony and joined with colleagues Jackie DeMar, President and CEO of The Anti-Fraud Coalition (TAF), Randy Fox, Claire Sylvia, and Colette Mattzie in submitting joint written testimony on behalf of TAF and those individuals.
- Watch Getnick’s oral testimony here, and read his written testimony here.