Controversial California AI Bill Slammed by OpenAI and Silicon Valley, State Senator Fights Back
OpenAI has pushed back against California's AI bill Credit: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
Key Takeaways
- OpenAI has spoken out against the California AI bill.
- California State Senator Scott Wiener slammed OpenAI’s concerns.
- The bill would require AI models to feature a kill switch.
OpenAI joined most of Silicon Valley on Tuesday, Aug. 20, in opposing California’s AI bill, insisting that regulations should be left to the federal government.
California State Senator Scott Wiener, who originally introduced SB 1047 , quickly responded to the company, claiming it was a “highly reasonable bill” that asks large AI labs “to do what they’ve already committed to doing.”
What Is California’s SB 1047 AI Bill?
The proposal, which Wiener brought forward, would force AI companies to conduct safety testing for advanced AI models with over $100 million in development costs.
In case of an emergency, AI companies in the state would also need to develop a “full shutdown” method for the AI models, such as a kill switch.
SB 1047 would also require AI companies to hire third-party specialists to assess safety regularly.
The AI bill would give the state attorney general complete power to sue companies if found to be non-compliant.
Why Are Tech Giants Opposing the Bill?
In a letter penned by OpenAI’s Chief Strategy Officer Jason Kwon on Tuesday, Aug.20 , the AI boss claimed the bill would threaten “growth, slow the pace of innovation, and lead California’s world-class engineers and entrepreneurs to leave the state in search of greater opportunity elsewhere.”
“Given those risks, we must protect America’s AI edge with a set of federal policies — rather than state ones — that can provide clarity and certainty for AI labs and developers while also preserving public safety,” Kwon said.
The letter, addressed to Senator Wiener, followed mass pushback on the bill from other tech companies and experts operating in the state, including trade groups representing Meta and Google.
State Senator Has Fought Back
Wiener responded quickly to the tech giant in a press release on Wednesday, Aug. 21, for not criticizing “a single provision of the bill.”
“Instead of criticizing what the bill actually does, OpenAI argues this issue should be left to Congress,” said Wiener in the statement.
“As I’ve stated repeatedly, I agree that ideally, Congress would handle this. However, Congress has not done so, and we are skeptical Congress will do so.”
Wiener said that OpenAI’s claim that companies will leave California due to the bill “makes no sense given that SB 1047 is not limited to companies headquartered in California.”
The bill requires any AI company, wherever it is headquartered, to follow its regulations if its products are used by Californians.
OpenAI Unveils GPT-4 Customization for Businesses, Enhancing Fine-Tuning on Company Data
