OpenAI is reportedly backing a California bill that would require technology companies to label artificial intelligence (AI)-generated content.
In a letter to Rep. Buffy Wicks, the author of Assembly Bill (AB) 3211, the company said it believes transparency around AI-generated content is especially important in an election year, Reuters reported on Monday (August 26).
“New technologies and standards can help people understand the origins of the content they find online and avoid confusing human-generated content with photorealistic AI-generated content,” OpenAI chief strategy officer Jason Kwon said in the letter.
OpenAI did not immediately respond to PYMNTS' request for comment.
According to the report, AB 3211 is a different bill from the more widely reported AI bill, Senate Bill (SB) 1047, which OpenAI opposes.
According to the report, AB 3211 passed unanimously in the state Assembly and now heads to the full state Senate for a vote. If it passes the Senate by Aug. 31, Gov. Gavin Newsom has until Sept. 30 to sign or veto it.
The bill is opposed by the California Chamber of Commerce (CalChamber), which said in an August 16 announcement that AB 3211 “imposes highly prescriptive and technically unfeasible requirements on AI developers, large online platforms, and camera/recording device manufacturers.”
“What the technology can currently do changes essentially month to month,” CalChamber said in its announcement. “For example, just a few months ago, there were no programs to watermark text, making it impossible to meet the bill's requirements. Now, one company appears to be close to having the technology, but the technology is not yet completely reliable, raising serious competitive concerns about solidifying market leadership.”
Google announced in September that it would require election advertisers to disclose if their ads were manipulated or created with AI tools, a policy that applies to election advertisers across Google's platforms and brings more transparency into election advertising that the company has long called for.
“This update builds on our existing transparency efforts to further support responsible political advertising and help provide voters with the information they need to make informed decisions,” Google said in a statement provided to PYMNTS at the time.
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