OpenAI supports California bill requiring AI watermarking

Jason Kwon of OpenAI said that the requirement can help people avoid confusion between human-generated and photorealistic AI-generated content.

OpenAI has expressed support for a California bill that will require tech companies to label AI-generated content, including watermarking content, as the US elections get closer.

The bill, known as AB 3211, was introduced by Buffy Wicks, a lawmaker serving in the California State Assembly, earlier this year. It has already passed the state assembly in a 62-0 vote and is expected to be voted on in the state Senate before being sent to the governor to either veto or sign into law.

OpenAI believes that transparency and requirements around provenance such as watermarking AI-generated content are especially important in an election year, the San Francisco start-up wrote to Wick in a letter seen by Reuters. The US elections are set to take place on the first Tuesday of November.

“New technology and standards can help people understand the origin of content they find online and avoid confusion between human-generated and photorealistic AI-generated content,” wrote Jason Kwon, chief strategy officer at OpenAI.

AB 3211 has been overshadowed in recent weeks by another Californian AI bill, SB 1047,which aims to ensure the safe development of AI systems by putting more responsibilities on AI developers.

SB 1047 would force developers of large “frontier” AI models to take precautions such as safety testing, implementing safeguards to prevent misuse and post-deployment monitoring.

The bill has previously come under fire from Y Combinator and a host of AI start-ups based in California because of concerns the new rules could stifle innovation and “inadvertently threaten the vibrancy of California’s technology economy and undermine competition”.

In June, Y Combinator argued in a letter signed by more than 100 start-ups that the responsibility for the misuse of large language models should rest “with those who abuse these tools, not with the developers who create them”.

The bill passed through California’s Appropriations Committee earlier this month with several changes suggested by tech companies including Anthropic – bringing it a step closer to becoming law. It has been criticised by a host of US politicians, including Nancy Pelosi, as well as OpenAI.

In a letter sent to state senator Scott Wiener (who introduced SB 1047) earlier this month, Kwon argued that only a “clear federal framework” of AI regulations will help the US maintain its competitive advantage over rivals such as China.

“The AI revolution is only just beginning, and California’s unique status as the global leader in AI is fuelling the state’s economic dynamism,” Kwon wrote. “SB 1047 would threaten that growth, slow the pace of innovation, and lead California’s world-class engineers and entrepreneurs to leave the state in search of greater opportunities elsewhere.”

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