Lawmakers who support California's recently vetoed AI bill, SB 1047, are losing power.
For months, Silicon Valley debated whether SB 1047 would have a chilling effect on California's AI boom or protect it from catastrophic damage caused by advanced AI systems. The answer has not been clear since California Governor Gavin Newsom decided this was the wrong approach and vetoed the bill on Sunday before it became law.
Now, California Sen. Scott Wiener tells TechCrunch that some Silicon Valley institutions spread an unprecedented level of “misinformation” about SB 1047 in the months leading up to the veto. Ta. (People outside Silicon Valley also criticized SB 1047, including Nancy Pelosi and the U.S. Department of Commerce.)
“I've submitted tough bills and I've submitted bills with incorrect information. I've never received a bill with more incorrect information than this one,” Wiener said. he told TechCrunch. “There was a full-scale propaganda campaign.”
Weiner specifically criticized executives at Y Combinator and Andreessen Horowitz for helping spread the theory that SB 1047 would send startup founders to prison. This is technically not a mistake. In theory, developers who lie in the AI safety reports required by SB 1047 could be sent to prison for perjury. But that only happens if the developer lies.
In fact, some people in the tech industry helped popularize that idea. In June, Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan signed a letter to California state legislators claiming that “AI software developers could go to jail” under SB 1047. Earlier that month, Anjney Midha, a partner at Andreessen Horowitz, said on a podcast that “a rational startup founder or academic researcher would risk prison time or financial ruin just to advance cutting-edge AI.” ”
“I think A16Z was at the heart of a lot of the opposition to the bill,” Wiener said.
Y Combinator did not immediately respond to TechCrunch's request for comment. Andreessen Horowitz pointed TechCrunch to a letter written by the company's chief legal officer several months ago in which Weiner made similar claims, saying SB 1047 is a “deeply disturbing shift from the way software development is regulated in this country.” “This is a fundamental departure from what we should do.”
Another claim Wiener cited as false was that SB 1047 would drive AI startups out of California. Wiener argues that startups across the country would have been similarly affected by SB 1047 as long as they were doing business in California.
OpenAI Chief Strategy Officer Jason Kwon wrote a letter to Newsom in August saying SB 1047 would force California entrepreneurs out of the state. The Chamber of Progress, the Big Tech industry group that represents Meta, Apple, and Google, makes similar claims on its website.
Weiner also criticized Fei-Fei Li, whom many refer to as the godmother of AI, for making inaccurate allegations about SB 1047 in an August opinion piece in Fortune magazine. At the time, Lee wrote that open source programs that developers download and build could be shut down by the original AI model provider under SB 1047. A big part of the discussion about SB 1047 was how it would impact the open source ecosystem.
“The bill makes it clear that you only need to shut down if you own the model,” Wiener said. “Nevertheless, Fei-Fei Li included that inaccurate statement in her work. It was unfortunate because she was so well-respected.”
Lee did not immediately respond to TechCrunch's request for comment.
Finally, the authors of SB 1047 took issue with Governor Newsom's letter explaining why he vetoed the bill, saying the governor “has not done justice in explaining the bill.” Indeed, Newsom said SB 1047 should have covered more AI models, giving a surprising reason for his veto.
“By focusing only on the most expensive and large-scale models, SB 1047 introduces regulations that could give the public a false sense of security about control over this rapidly changing technology,” Newsom said in the letter. It will establish a framework.” “Smaller, more specialized models may emerge as equally or even more dangerous than those covered by SB 1047, at the expense of the very innovations that prioritize public interest and promote progress. may be suppressed.”
Many lawmakers, including Newsom, have criticized SB 1047 in the past as being too burdensome, so the governor suggested the bill should have a more flexible framework to cover more AI models. It was a little surprising.
Although it didn't become law, Wiener said SB 1047 really sparked the conversation about AI safety in California. Newsom announced Sunday that he is forming a new task force with Lee and other researchers to develop guardrails for responsible AI development. The state also passed 18 other laws regulating AI in September.
Wiener has not ruled out returning next year with an improved version of SB 1047.
“It's too early to say exactly what we'll do,” Wiener said. “We are committed to promoting safety in AI.”