New York Governor Kathy Hochul Thinks AI Should Be ‘Less Evil’
In a Decoder interview published 31 August 2026, New York Governor Kathy Hochul called AI “in one sense a necessary evil” and challenged the industry to “make it less evil”. This piece walks through what she actually said: the Executive Order 62 moratorium on hyperscale data centers of 50MW or more, the 30 applications that triggered it, St. Lawrence County’s one-reactor problem, the AI review of state regulations that saved 1.5 million hours, the 81 percent of likely-displaced jobs held by women, her Flock camera objections, the Meta teen-safety settlement, and what her “less evil” standard signals for businesses deploying AI.