California revises its AI safety bill following Industry pushback
California's latest legislative effort to regulate AI has undergone significant changes following pushback from the tech industry, particularly AI startup Anthropic. Other lawmakers were also opposed to the bill expressing concern that the bill could stifle innovation and push companies to operate outside of California.
"I’m very concerned about the effect this legislation could have on the innovation economy of California without any clear benefit for the public," wrote Congressional Representative Zoe Lofgren in an August 7 letter to Wiener. "There is a real risk that companies will decide to incorporate in other jurisdictions or simply not release models in California." We have already seen this happening in Europe in response to the EU AI act.
The Safe and Secure Innovation for Frontier Artificial Intelligence Models Act (SB 1047), introduced by State Senator Scott Wiener is aimed at ensuring the safe development and deployment of cutting-edge AI technologies. The bill targets “frontier models” – AI systems requiring immense computational resources and costing hundreds of millions to develop – and has been hailed by AI pioneers like Geoffrey Hinton and Yoshua Bengio as a crucial step in mitigating potential risks.
In response to the criticisms, the bill has been amended to:
Limit enforcement penalties and remove criminal perjury provisions.
Eliminate the creation of a dedicated Frontier Model Division.
Relax the legal standard for developer compliance from “reasonable assurance” to “reasonable care.”
Introduce an open-source carveout exempting smaller developers.
Narrow whistleblower protections.
Wiener acknowledged the changes to SB 1047 on Thursday, noting that while the amendments do not fully align with Anthropic's requests, they address key industry concerns. "We accepted a number of very reasonable amendments proposed, and I believe we’ve addressed the core concerns expressed by Anthropic and many others in the industry," Wiener said in a statement.
As the legislative process unfolds, the debate over AI regulation in California continues to highlight the challenges of balancing innovation with public safety in one of the world's leading technology hubs. The bill is heading to a final vote before the end of the month, and the outcome will have far-reaching implications for the AI industry and could set a precedent for regulation in other jurisdictions.
