Bloomberg reported on Thursday that OpenAI will join other Silicon Valley tech giants in the fight against California's landmark artificial intelligence bill.
SB 1047, a bill introduced by California Sen. Scott Wiener in February, aims to establish “common-sense safety standards” for AI systems that cost more than $100 million to develop, Business Insider reported on Monday.
The bill would require companies to put in place protocols to prevent AI models from causing “serious harm,” such as being used to launch cyberattacks or lead to the development of weapons of mass destruction.
The bill also includes a “total shutdown” provision that would act as a kill switch for AI systems.
In a letter to Wiener on Wednesday, OpenAI chief strategy officer Jason Kwon warned that the bill could stifle progress and drive companies out of California.
Kwon also wrote that regulation of AI related to national security is “best managed at the federal level” rather than a “patchwork of state laws.”
Silicon Valley tech giants like Meta and Anthropic are also lobbying against the bill.
In a June letter, Rob Sherman, Meta's vice president of policy and acting chief privacy officer, warned that the bill could stifle the open source movement by exposing developers to significant legal liability. Sherman wrote that regulations could hinder the broader tech ecosystem, as small and medium-sized businesses rely on these free-to-use models to innovate.
Anthropique has also resisted the bill's strict pre-emptive restrictions, arguing instead for a more balanced approach that doesn't impede progress, BI reported on Monday.
OpenAI had previously lobbied against similar legislation by the European Union, seeking to ease regulatory requirements for general-purpose AI systems like GPT-3, Time magazine reported last year.
According to Time, the EU has since amended its final draft of the AI bill to remove language classifying general-purpose AI as high risk, focusing instead on “foundational models” with more limited requirements.
Despite industry opposition, Sen. Wiener argued that this is “a very reasonable bill that asks large AI labs to do what they've already committed to doing,” he said in his response to OpenAI's letter on Wednesday.
The bill has passed the state Senate and is expected to receive a final vote in the California Assembly later this month.
OpenAI and Senator Wiener did not respond to requests for comment sent outside of normal business hours.
