California Governor Gavin Newsom on Sunday vetoed a hotly contested artificial intelligence security bill after the tech industry objected, saying it could drive AI companies out of the state and hinder innovation.
Newsom said the bill “does not take into account whether the AI system is deployed in a high-risk environment, involves making critical decisions or uses sensitive data” and that it would be “stringent for even the most basic tasks.” will enforce the standards – unless a larger system deploys it.”
Newsom said he had asked leading experts on generative AI to help California “develop working guardrails” that “focus on developing empirical, science-based trajectory analysis.” He also ordered state agencies to expand their assessments of the risks posed by potentially catastrophic events associated with the use of AI.
Generative AI – which can create text, photos and video in response to open-ended prompts – has sparked excitement as well as fears that it could render some jobs obsolete, influence elections and potentially can overpower humans and have devastating effects.
The bill’s author, Democratic State Senator Scott Wiener, said the legislation was necessary to protect the public before advances in AI become burdensome or uncontrolled. The AI industry is growing rapidly in California and some leaders have questioned the future of these companies in the state if the bill becomes law.
Wiener said Sunday that the veto makes California less safe and means that “companies aiming to create extremely powerful technologies will not face any binding sanctions.” “Voluntary commitments from industry are not enforceable and rarely work well for the public,” he said.
“We cannot wait for a major disaster to occur before taking action to protect the public,” Newsom said. Capabilities.”
Newsom said he will work with the legislature on AI legislation during the next session. It comes as legislation setting out safeguards is stalled in the US Congress and the Biden administration pushes regulatory AI oversight proposals.
Newsom said, “A California-only approach may be needed — especially absent federal action by Congress.”
The tech industry coalition Chamber of Progress praised Newsom’s veto, saying, “California’s tech economy has always thrived on competition and openness.”
Among other things, the measure would mandate security testing for many of the most advanced AI models, those that cost more than $100 million (about Rs 838 crore) to develop or require a set amount of computing power. Is. Developers of AI software working in the state will also need to outline ways to turn off AI models, effectively a kill switch.
The bill would establish a state entity to oversee the development of so-called “frontier models” that exceed the capabilities present in the most advanced existing models.
The bill faced strong opposition from various groups. Alphabet’s Google, Microsoft-backed OpenAI and Meta Platform, which are all developing generative AI models, had expressed concerns about the proposal.
Some Democrats, including Representative Nancy Pelosi in the US Congress, also opposed it. Supporters include Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who also runs an AI firm called xAI. Amazon-backed Anthropic said the benefits of the bill are likely to outweigh the costs, though it added there are still some aspects it finds worrisome or unclear.
Newsom separately signed legislation requiring the state to assess the potential threats posed by generative AI to California’s critical infrastructure.
Newsom said the state is analyzing the risks to energy infrastructure and power sector providers previously and will conduct similar risk assessments with water infrastructure providers and later the communications sector in the coming year.
© Thomson Reuters 2024
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