California Governor Gavin Newsom vetoes controversial AI safety bill

California Governor Gavin Newsom on Sunday vetoed a hotly contested artificial intelligence safety bill after the tech industry raised objections, saying it could drive AI companies out of the state and stifle innovation to obstruct.

Newsom said the bill “does not take into account whether an AI system is deployed in high-risk environments, involves critical decision-making or the use of sensitive data” and would apply “strict standards to even the most basic functions – as long as a great system implements it.”

Newsom said he had asked leading experts in generative AI to help California “develop actionable guardrails” that focus “on developing an empirical, science-based trajectory analysis.” He also directed government agencies to expand their assessment of the risks of potential catastrophic events associated with the use of AI.

Generative AI – which can create text, photos and videos in response to open-ended questions – has fueled both excitement and fears that it could make some jobs redundant, disrupt elections, potentially overwhelm people and have catastrophic consequences. could have.

The bill’s author, Democratic state Sen. Scott Wiener, said legislation is needed to protect the public before progress in AI becomes cumbersome or out of control. The AI ​​industry is growing rapidly in California, and some leaders questioned the future of these companies in the state if the bill were to become law.

Wiener said Sunday that the veto makes California less safe and means that “companies that want to create an extremely powerful technology will not face binding restrictions.” He added that “voluntary industry commitments are unenforceable and rarely work out well for the public.”

“We cannot afford to wait until a major catastrophe occurs before we take action to protect the public,” Newsom said, but added that he disagreed. “We have to settle for a solution that is not based on an empirical trajectory analysis of AI systems and capabilities.”

Newsom said he will work with the Legislature on AI legislation during the next legislative session. It comes as legislation in the US Congress to provide safeguards has stalled and the Biden administration is advancing proposals for regulatory AI oversight.

Newsom said that “a California-only approach may be warranted — especially if Congress does not take federal action.”

Chamber of Progress, a coalition of the tech industry, praised Newsom’s veto, saying that “California’s tech economy has always thrived on competition and openness.”

The measure would, among other things, mandate safety testing for many of the most advanced AI models that cost more than $100 million (about Rs. 838 crore) to develop or models that require a certain amount of computing power. AI software developers operating in the state should also have outlined methods for disabling the AI ​​models, essentially a “kill switch.”

The bill would have created a state entity to oversee the development of so-called “frontier models” that exceed the capabilities of the most advanced existing models.

The bill faced strong opposition from many groups. Google, Microsoft-backed OpenAI and Alphabet’s Meta Platforms, all of which develop generative AI models, had raised concerns about the proposal.

Some Democrats in Congress, including Representative Nancy Pelosi, also opposed it. Supporters included Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who also runs an AI company called xAI. Amazon-backed Anthropic said the bill’s benefits likely outweigh its costs, although it added that there are still some aspects that appear concerning or ambiguous.

Newsom separately signed legislation requiring the state to assess potential threats from generative AI to California’s critical infrastructure.

The state is analyzing the risks of energy infrastructure and previously convened energy sector suppliers and will conduct the same risk assessment with water infrastructure suppliers and later the communications sector in the coming year, Newsom said.

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