California Threatens to Kill AI with Shortsighted Regulations: Jake Morabito in The Orange County Register
Why California’s Overreach on AI Could Undermine Its Role as a Global Tech Leader
One of the biggest challenges of the burgeoning artificial intelligence (AI) industry is regulation. ALEC Communications and Technology Task Force Director Jake Morabito discussed California’s approach in a recent op-ed for the Orange County Register. Citing numerous attempts to restrict rather than assist AI, he highlights bills such as SB 1047 (which was ultimately vetoed for its overly restrictive limitations on developers). In contrast, states like Utah and Texas are fostering AI growth by opting for limited regulation and industry collaboration, promoting more balanced and innovation-friendly approaches to AI policy.
Nearly two years since generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools like ChatGPT and Google Gemini became widely available, California lawmakers have debated how this powerful new technology ought to be regulated or restricted. Unfortunately, some are legislating from a position of fear — to the detriment of American consumers and the nation’s vibrant AI industry.
Sacramento advanced nearly two dozen legislative proposals just this year, attempting to dictate the future development of AI technology nationwide. The most draconian of these bills, SB 1047, would have created a new state agency tasked with heavily regulating advanced, so-called “frontier” AI models in the name of trust and safety.
A vocal minority of AI safety maximalists perceives AI and related technologies as a unique threat that must be tightly controlled by government agencies, or else risk the end of civilization. To this end, SB 1047 would have also required all large AI model developers to preemptively certify and attest that their AI tools could never be intentionally misused by criminals to cause future “critical harms” to the public.
While the goal to prevent catastrophic harms may be well-intentioned, this excessively high standard would make it nearly impossible for AI developers large and small to comply with the letter of the requirements, and functionally bans open-source AI models such as Meta’s Llama 3.
Cooler heads ultimately prevailed when Governor Gavin Newsom vetoed the flawed SB 1047 in late September, but the Golden State did enact nearly two dozen other new laws that could have significant consequences on AI development going forward.