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The first attempt at codifying AI regulations anywhere in the U.S. just won the support of a powerful voice at a critical juncture.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla<\/a> and founder of Grok chatbot parent xAI, threw his weight behind California\u2019s \u201cSafe and Secure Innovation for Frontier Artificial Intelligence Models Act\u201d (Senate Bill 1047<\/a>).\u00a0<\/p>\n Should it pass the state assembly and receive\u00a0final approval<\/a>\u00a0from Governor Gavin Newsom before the legislative term ends this week, it would put initial guardrails around the technology. The bill seeks to require developers to create safety protocols, to be able to shut down a runaway AI model, to report security incidents, to give rights to whistleblowers inside AI companies, to require companies to take steps to shield AI from being used by malicious hackers, and to create liabilities for companies if their AI software runs out of control.<\/p>\n It is however opposed by venture capitalists like Marc Andreessen<\/a>\u00a0and is even\u00a0hotly disputed<\/a>\u00a0among AI luminaries: Meta chief AI officer Yann LeCun opposes the bill while AlexNet\u2019s co-creator Geoffrey Hinton supports it.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is a tough call and will make some people upset, but, all things considered, I think California should probably pass the SB 1047 AI safety bill,\u201d Musk\u00a0posted<\/a>\u00a0on Monday, citing the \u201crisk to the public\u201d from AI.<\/p>\n This is a tough call and will make some people upset, but, all things considered, I think California should probably pass the SB 1047 AI safety bill.<\/p>\n For over 20 years, I have been an advocate for AI regulation, just as we regulate any product\/technology that is a potential risk\u2026<\/p>\n \u2014 Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 26, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Up to now the only regulatory framework that exists focuses on only the largest supercomputers with 10*26 power floating-point operations, which cost more than $100 million to train. Yet this is not federal legislation on the statute books, but rather an executive order<\/a>\u00a0by the Biden administration that could easily be undone by his successor next year.<\/p>\n This bill would at least in part mitigate this and provide some legal clarity for Big Tech firms like Microsoft<\/a> affiliate OpenAI, Amazon-backed Anthropic and Google<\/a>, even if they may not necessarily agree with it.<\/p>\n \u201cSB 1047 is a straight-forward, common-sense, light-touch bill that builds on President Biden\u2019s executive order,\u201d said California state senator Scott Wiener, sponsor of the bill,\u00a0earlier this month<\/a>.<\/p>\n If any one state were to pick up the mantle, it would make the most sense for it to be California. Its $4 trillion economy is roughly the size of Germany and Japan\u2019s in absolute dollar terms, thanks mainly to its thriving tech sector in Silicon Valley.\u00a0Arguably it is doing much more to drive innovation than either of those two G7 nations.<\/p>\n Speaking to Bloomberg TV, Wiener said he empathized with the argument that Washington ought to have pressed forward but he cited a range of issues including data privacy laws, social media and net neutrality that Capitol Hill has consistently failed to tackle conclusively.<\/p>\n \u201cI agree, it should be handled at the federal level,\u201d Wiener told the broadcaster on\u00a0Friday<\/a>. \u201cCongress has a very poor record in terms of regulating the tech sector and I don\u2019t see that changing so California should lead.<\/p>\n Excellent argument by @AndrewYNg<\/a> against the ignominious California regulation SB1047, which would essentially kill open source AI and significantly slow down or stop AI innovation. https:\/\/t.co\/pZuLUXYCLR<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Yann LeCun (@ylecun) July 12, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n This month is the final opportunity for SB 1047 to pass. After the week ends, the state legislature term goes into recess ahead of fresh elections in November. If it does pass, it still needs to be approved by Newsom prior to the end of September, and last week the U.S. Chamber of Congress urged him to\u00a0veto the bill<\/a>\u00a0should it cross his desk.<\/p>\n But regulating technology can be a fool\u2019s errand since policy always lags the speed of innovation. Intervening in the free market can inadvertently stifle innovation\u2014and that is the primary criticism around\u00a0SB 1047<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Only a year ago, Big Tech\u00a0champions<\/a>\u00a0could largely smother any outside attempt to intervene in the sector. Most policymakers understood America was locked in a high-stakes AI arms race with\u00a0China<\/a>, and\u00a0neither could afford to lose. Were the U.S. to slap restraints on its domestic industry, it could tip the scales in favor of Beijing.\u00a0<\/p>\n A rash of\u00a0recent departures<\/a>\u00a0among\u00a0senior AI safety experts<\/a>\u00a0from OpenAI, the firm that launched the AI gold rush, has however sparked concerns that executives\u2014including its CEO Sam Altman\u2014may be\u00a0throwing caution to the wind<\/a>\u00a0in a bid to accelerate commercialization of the\u00a0terrifically expensive technology<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Former OpenAI safety researcher Daniel Kokotajlo told\u00a0Fortune<\/em>\u00a0on Monday that nearly half of the AI governance staff have on their own decided to collectively leave the former non-profit, dismayed by the direction it has taken.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s just people sort of individually giving up,\u201d he said in an\u00a0exclusive interview<\/a>. Kokotajlo chose to spurn whatever equity he had in the firm to avoid signing an\u00a0extensive non-disclosure agreement<\/a>\u00a0barring him from speaking about his former employer.<\/p>\n Musk would likely be affected personally by the legislation, as well. Last year he founded his own artificial general intelligence startup in xAI. He just opened a brand new\u00a0supercompute cluster<\/a>\u00a0in Memphis that is\u00a0powered by AI training chips<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0staffed by experts<\/a>\u00a0he effectively poached from Tesla.<\/p>\n But Musk isn\u2019t your average challenger: he\u2019s well acquainted with technology, having co-founded OpenAI in December 2015 and personally recruit its\u00a0former chief scientist<\/a>. Later the Tesla CEO and entrepreneur\u00a0fell out<\/a>\u00a0with Altman, deciding ultimately to\u00a0sue the firm not once but twice<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n
Final week for California to pass it before legislative term ends<\/h2>\n
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Former OpenAI researcher reveals his colleagues are giving up<\/h2>\n
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