The bill – called SB 1047 – has previously come under fire from investors such as Y Combinator and a host of AI start-ups amid concerns it will stifle innovation.
US politician Nancy Pelosi has called an upcoming controversial AI safety bill in California “well-intentioned but ill-informed”.
In a statement, the former speaker of the House of Representatives said that while she wants California to lead in AI in a way that protects consumers, data and intellectual property, the bill – called Senate Bill 1047 – is “more harmful than helpful in that pursuit”.
The bill passed through California’s Appropriations Committee last week with several changes suggested by tech companies including Anthropic – bringing it a step closer to becoming law.
“California has the intellectual resources that understand the technology, respect the intellectual property, and prioritise academia and entrepreneurship,” Pelosi wrote.
“There are many proposals in the California legislature in addition to SB 1047. Reviewing them all enables a comprehensive understanding of the best path forward for our great state.”
SB 1047 aims to ensure the safe development of AI systems by putting more responsibilities on AI developers. The bill would force developers of large “frontier” AI models to take precautions such as safety testing, implementing safeguards to prevent misuse and post-deployment monitoring.
After last week’s amendments, the bill no longer allows California’s attorney general to sue AI companies for negligent safety practices before a catastrophic event has occurred, a suggestion made by Anthropic. Instead, the attorney general can sue a company after a catastrophic event has occurred because of its AI model. It can also request a company to cease a certain operation if it finds the operation dangerous.
“AI springs from California,” Pelosi added. “We must have legislation that is a model for the nation and the world. We have the opportunity and responsibility to enable small entrepreneurs and academia – not Big Tech – to dominate.”
The bill has previously come under fire from investors such as Y Combinator and a host of AI start-ups based in California amid 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”.
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Nancy Pelosi speaking with attendees at the 2019 California Democratic Party State Convention. Image: Gage Skidmore/Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0)
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