California Governor Vetoes Artificial Intelligence Safety Bill #

The governor of California has vetoed a bill aimed at regulating artificial intelligence (AI) safety, blocking what was considered the most ambitious proposal in the nation to curtail the growth of this new technology.

The vetoed bill required safety testing of large AI systems before their public release. It also proposed giving the state’s attorney general the right to sue companies over serious harm caused by their technologies, such as death or property damage. Additionally, the bill mandated a kill switch to turn off AI systems in case of potential biowarfare, mass casualties, or property damage.

In his veto statement, the governor expressed that the bill was flawed due to its focus on regulating the biggest AI systems, known as frontier models, without considering potential risks and harms from the technology as a whole. He suggested that legislators should rewrite the bill for the next session.

The governor stated that he did not believe this was the best approach to protecting the public from real threats posed by the technology. He argued that the bill would apply stringent standards even to the most basic functions, as long as a large system deploys it.

The decision to veto the bill is expected to draw criticism from tech experts and academics who supported the legislation. The governor, a Democrat, faced strong pressure to veto the bill, which became embroiled in a fierce national debate over AI regulation. Lobbyists presented arguments both for the technology’s potential benefits and its possible irreparable harm to humanity.

California was poised to become a standard-bearer for regulating AI, a technology that has rapidly gained public attention with the release of chatbots and realistic image and video generators in recent years. In the absence of federal legislation, California’s Legislature had taken an aggressive approach to reining in the technology with this proposal, which both houses passed nearly unanimously.

While lawmakers and regulators globally have expressed concerns about AI, few have taken concrete action. At the federal level, Congress has held hearings, but no legislation has made significant progress. In contrast, the European Union has passed the AI Act, which restricts the use of riskier technologies like facial recognition software.