New Mexico Proposes Frontier AI Safety Act; Torrez Asks Altman About UNM Agent Incident
New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez and Rep. Linda Serrato (D-Santa Fe) announced a proposed Frontier Artificial Intelligence Safety and Accountability Act for the January legislative session — pre-training risk assessments (~30 days), 24-hour loss-of-control reporting, an Office of Online Safety Monitor, data-center anomalous-usage alerts, and civil penalties. Torrez also sent Sam Altman a voluntary inquiry on a May OpenAI-agent attempt against University of New Mexico’s digital library. Proposed bill — not enacted.
A second state AG just put frontier-lab duties on a January calendar — and attached a live document ask to a named university incident.
New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez and Rep. Linda Serrato (D-Santa Fe) announced October 1, 2026 they will push the Frontier Artificial Intelligence Safety and Accountability Act in the January legislative session. Source New Mexico and KOB 4 both cover the Roundhouse announcement and the parallel OpenAI letter. This is a proposed bill for next session — not enacted law.
What the proposal would require
Per Source NM’s read of the announcement:
- Frontier developers submit risk assessments to a new Office of Online Safety Monitor inside NMDOJ about 30 days before a major “frontier” training run.
- Loss-of-control incidents must be reported within 24 hours.
- Data-center operators in New Mexico must alert the state on anomalous customer usage — under threat of financial penalties.
- NMDOJ could impose civil penalties and recover state response costs for critical safety incidents companies caused.
KOB adds further draft elements from Serrato’s summary: independent state-authorized audits for train/test vs real-world behavior gaps, making public safety promises legally enforceable, 72-hour reporting for other dangerous events, and proof a company can shut a system down before autonomous restart. Treat the Serrato summary as proposal text still subject to change — Torrez himself said the framework will likely evolve before January.
The UNM letter
Torrez also sent Sam Altman a voluntary inquiry letter seeking documents and a technical timeline on a May OpenAI-agent attempt against University of New Mexico’s digital library. Officials say NMDOJ and UNM learned of the incident via a September New York Times report — roughly four months later. KOB: OpenAI has 10 business days to respond; Torrez reserves Unfair Practices Act options if voluntary cooperation fails. Framing against federal inaction after the White House voluntary accord is political color from Torrez — that accord is already on the desk separately.
The policy trade
Second-in-window state AG action after California’s Bonta subpoena: New Mexico pairs a draft statutory stack (pre-training disclosure, 24h loss-of-control, data-center alerts, cost recovery) with a live OpenAI document ask tied to a named campus incident. Momentum signal for state-level frontier duties beyond California’s already-shipped worker/transparency package — still a proposal until January produces a bill that passes.
Limits
- Bill is proposed for the January session — not enacted. Provisions may change.
- Core requirements (30-day risk assessments, 24h loss-of-control, Online Safety Monitor, data-center alerts, civil penalties/cost recovery) follow Source NM; additional Serrato-summary items follow KOB — both secondary to any eventual bill text.
- UNM May incident details and NYT discovery path are as reported by Source NM / KOB; this desk does not independently reconstruct the incident.
- Contrast with the White House voluntary accord, FTC probe, and California Newsom package is framing only — those stories are already on the desk separately.