Hochul Weighs Legislation Limiting A.I. and More Than 100 Other Bills

It is an end-of-year State Capitol tradition, a lawmaker’s parallel to the tree lighting at Rockefeller Center: a holiday checklist of scores of bills that await Gov. Kathy Hochul’s signature or veto before the new year.

The bills, as they typically do, vary in consequence and scope.

Ms. Hochul, for example, signed a bill last week requiring health insurers to cover the costs of EpiPens for people with allergies. She vetoed a bill prohibiting the removal of horseshoe crabs from their natural habitats. And she left hanging a bill that would push state economic development officials to promote the game of stickball.

The stickball bill is among roughly 105 pieces of legislation awaiting her consideration. In most cases, any bill she does not act on before Jan. 1 will be effectively vetoed.

The impending deadline has prompted a last-minute lobbying frenzy as advocacy groups, labor affiliates and business interests argue for or against bills they care about. Ms. Hochul’s spokesman declined to give any indication of how the governor regards the bills awaiting her decision.

Here’s where things stand on some of the outstanding pieces of legislation.

Restricting how state workers use A.I. tools

Ms. Hochul has focused on the spreading use of artificial intelligence. She backed legislation that devotes hundreds of millions of dollars to A.I. research, pushed for new laws that force campaigns to disclose how A.I. is used by political candidates, and instituted guidelines for its use by the state.

Yet she has not hinted at her stance on a bill strongly backed by labor unions that would limit how artificial intelligence could be used to replace employed state workers, would require agencies to disclose when they are using A.I. programs and would further regulate how such tools are used.