California Governor Gavin Newsom has vetoed a landmark bill on artificial intelligence that would have established the first safety measures for the industry in the US. The bill, California Senate Bill 104, or SB 1047 was aimed at reducing potential risks created by AI.
The proposed legislation would have obligated tech companies with powerful AI models to subject them to safety testing before their release. It would have also obliged them to prevent their models from being able to manipulate them into causing harm and possible hacking strategically critical infrastructure.
Newsom claimed that the legislation is misdirected in that its misdirected to even the most basic functions. “…I do not believe that this is the best approach in protecting the public from real threats posed by this technology.”
Senator Scott Weiner, the bills authors dubbed the veto a setback for those who “believe in oversight of massive corporations that are making critical decisions”.
Upon further examination however, one must wonder just how self-serving this veto is? Newsom’s own offices declare that “California is home to 32 of the world’s 50 leading AI companies”. One wonders then if the bill was really flawed, or whose interests are being served or being protected? One wonders. It seems that the general interests of the public no matter as much as those of corporation interests. Concerning to be sure.