Late yesterday, Representative Nancy Pelosi released a statement in opposition to SB 1047, a California bill that seeks to regulate AI.
“The view of many members of Congress is that SB 1047 is well-intentioned but poorly informed,” Pelosi said. Other Bay Area lawmakers, Zoe Lofgren, Anna Eshoo and Ro Khanna, have also raised concerns about the bill, which she described as “doing more harm than good.”
The bill was recently amended to address concerns from critics such as AI company Anthropic and is now up for a vote in the California Assembly. Because it is a state bill, Pelosi and other lawmakers have no official say in it, but Pelosi's seniority and name recognition means her opinion is likely to carry weight among California politicians.
“AI will be born in California,” she said. “We must enact laws that will be a model for the nation and the world. We have an opportunity and a responsibility to ensure that small entrepreneurs and academic institutions, not big tech companies, take the lead.”
