California Governor Gavin Newsom on Monday signed into law a new set of rules to ensure the safe development of artificial intelligence, creating one of the strongest sets of regulations in the nation.
The Transparency in Frontier Artificial Intelligence Act, or S.B. 53, requires the most advanced A.I. companies to report safety protocols used in building their technologies and forces the companies to report the greatest risks posed by their technologies. The bill also strengthens whistle blower protections for employees who warn the public about potential dangers the technology poses.
California Senator Scott Wiener, a Democrat from San Francisco, who proposed the legislation, said the law was crucial to fill a vacuum to protect consumers from potential harms from A.I.
“This is a groundbreaking law that promotes both innovation and safety; the two are not mutually exclusive, even though they are often pitted against each other to be,” Mr. Wiener said.
The closely watched California law will escalate the tech industry’s war against states taking regulation of A.I. into their own hands.
Meta, OpenAI, Google and the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz have warned that state legislation will put too much of a burden on A.I. companies, which now face dozens of state laws around the country attempting to govern the rapidly advancing technology. The companies have pushed for federal legislation that blocks states from passing a patchwork of rules.
Last month, Meta and Andreessen Horowitz pledged $200 million to two separate super PACs that aim to elect politicians friendly to A.I. .
“It’s a slippery slope. Today it’s California, next month it’s New York, a few months down the road it’s Texas and so on,” said David Grossman, vice president of policy and regulatory affairs at the Consumer Technology Association, a trade group.
This year, 38 states passed or enacted about 100 A.I. regulations, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
California has been a leader on technology regulations, enacting privacy and children’s safety legislation while Congress has been stuck for years in debates over similar proposals.
“California has proven that we can establish regulations to protect our communities while also ensuring that the growing A.I. industry continues to thrive,” Mr. Newsom, a Democrat, said in a statement. “This legislation strikes that balance.”
The new law signed on Monday applies to the companies creating the most advanced A.I. and with annual revenues of at least $500 million. It will require those companies to publicize how they have incorporated best practices for safety, in line with national and international standards.
The companies will be required to report safety incidents to the state’s Office of Emergency service, as well as protect whistle blowers who report significant risks at the tech companies.
California will also create a consortium within the state’s Government Operations Agency to focus on “safe, ethical, equitable, and sustainable” research and development of A.I.
Still, the law is a diluted version of a safety bill vetoed last year by Mr. Newsom after a fierce lobbying campaign by the industry against it.
Mr. Wiener’s previous bill, which was vetoed last September, mandated safety testing of A.I. and required companies to create a kill switch that could stop the technology.
Mr. Wiener rewrote the bill after consulting a working group led by academics and experts in A.I. technology, he said in an interview. He described the new law as a “reasonable approach.”
“There are certainly people in tech world who would like to see no regulation of anything in any respect whatsoever, but that’s not tenable,” he added.
The A.I. company Anthropic has supported Mr. Wiener’s efforts to create a safety bill, despite claims by other companies that the state law will harm their businesses.
The law has “practical safeguards that create real accountability for how powerful A.I. systems are developed and deployed, which will in turn keep everyone safer as the rapid acceleration of A.I. capabilities continues,” said Jack Clark, Anthropic’s co-founder, in a statement.
Cecilia Kang reports on technology and regulatory policy for The Times from Washington. She has written about technology for over two decades.
The post California Governor Signs Sweeping A.I. Law appeared first on New York Times.
