Support for one of California’s most controversial artificial intelligence safety bills, SB 1047, is growing. On Monday, an open letter was published in which 113 current and former employees of leading AI companies expressed their support for the bill. Notably, among the signatories are at least 37 workers known to have employers who officially oppose the bill.
The AI World is Stirred Again
SB 1047 aims to hold AI model developers accountable for catastrophic events resulting from their failure to implement necessary safety measures. The bill applies to developers of AI models that cost at least $100 million and operate in California. As the world’s fifth-largest economy, California is poised to provide significant backing for this regulation.
The bill recently passed both chambers of the California State Assembly with a wide margin and is now awaiting approval from Governor Gavin Newsom. He has until September 30 to decide whether to sign the bill into law.
SB 1047 has caused deep divides in San Francisco and the tech world. Opponents include former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, San Francisco Mayor London Breed, prominent AI figures Fei-Fei Li, and Trump-aligned venture capitalists Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz.
Supporters include Elon Musk, Geoffrey Hinton and Yoshua Bengio, who are often referred to as the ‘fathers’ of AI, and the youth advocacy group Encode Justice.
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