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California Governor Gavin Newsom has vetoed a controversial attempt to regulate artificial intelligence, citing concerns that the bill could stifle innovation following intense pressure from tech companies. .
Newsom, a Democrat, waited until the 11th hour to announce his decision after the bill passed the state House in late August.
The bill would force developers of the most powerful AI models to adhere to strict rules, including implementing kill switches to prevent catastrophic damage.
Major AI companies, including Google, OpenAI, and Meta, all opposed the bill, saying premature legislation could stifle AI development and threaten California’s leading role in technology development. There was a strong opposition movement. Elon Musk, owner of Amazon-backed Anthropic and startup xAI, supported the bill.
Newsom defended his veto of the Safe and Secure Innovation for Frontier Artificial Intelligence Systems Act, known as SB 1047, in a letter to the state Senate on Sunday.
He noted that California is home to 32 of the world’s largest AI companies, and said the framework could “stifle the very innovation that drives progress in favor of the public interest.” .
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In particular, he said targeting models by size (the bill would require safety testing and other guardrails for models costing more than $100 million to develop) is the wrong indicator. If “smaller, more specialized models could emerge as equally or more dangerous,” it could give the public “a false sense of security about controlling this rapidly advancing technology.” .
Sen. Scott Wiener, who sponsored the bill, said, “The veto is a powerful tool for everyone who believes in oversight of large corporations that are making important decisions that affect the safety and well-being of our citizens and the future of our planet.” It’s a setback for us.”
“Companies seeking to develop extremely powerful technologies will need binding support from U.S. policymakers, especially given Congress’s continued paralysis in regulating the technology industry in any meaningful way,” he said. They will not face any restrictions,” he added.
But Newsom argued that the bill does not take into account whether AI systems are “deployed in high-risk environments, involve critical decision-making, or involve the use of sensitive data.”
“Instead, this bill would apply strict standards to even the most basic functions, as long as large systems deploy them. We believe this is the best approach to protecting the public from the real threats posed by technology. I don’t think so.”
In the past 30 days, Newsom has signed legislation aimed at introducing and regulating generative AI technologies (the types that create text and images), including deepfakes, AI watermarking, and misinformation.
Technology experts are also partnering with countries to help develop “viable guardrails” for deploying generative AI that are backed by empirical and scientific evidence, he said. Ta.
The think tank Artificial Intelligence Policy Institute criticized the governor’s veto, calling it “misguided, reckless, and out of step with the people tasked with governing.”
“Mr. Newsom had an opportunity to serve as a leader in democratic governance regulation of AI development, a path he has taken in other industries, but chose to take his hands off the wheel. “AI development could go off track uncontrollably,” said Executive Director Daniel Colson.
“Newsom and lawmakers need to return to Sacramento next Congress and reach agreement on a series of measures that put sensible guardrails on AI development.”
