California governor vetoes controversial AI safety bill

Enlarge / California Governor Gavin Newsom, seen speaking to reporters after September’s presidential debate. (credit: Getty Images)

California Governor Gavin Newsom has vetoed SB-1047, a controversial artificial intelligence regulation that would have required the makers of large AI models to impose safety tests and kill switches to prevent potential “critical harms.”

In a statement announcing the veto on Sunday evening, Newsom suggested the bill’s specific interest in model size was misplaced. “By focusing only on the most expensive and large-scale models, SB-1047 establishes a regulatory framework that could give the public a false sense of security about controlling this fast-moving technology,” Newsom wrote. “Smaller, specialized models may emerge as equally or even more dangerous than the models targeted by SB-1047—at the potential expense of curtailing the very innovation that fuels advancement in favor of the public good.”

Newsom mentioned specific “rapidly evolving risks” from AI models that could be regulated in a more targeted way, such as “threats to our democratic process, the spread of misinformation and deepfakes, risks to online privacy, threats to critical infrastructure, and disruptions in the workforce.” California already has a number of AI laws on the books targeting some of these potential harms, and many other states have signed similar laws.