CALIFORNIA ADVANCES UNIQUE SAFETY REGULATIONS FOR AI COMPANIES DESPITE TECH FIRM OPPOSITION

California lawmakers voted to advance legislation this week that would require artificial intelligence companies to test their systems and add safety measures to prevent them from being potentially manipulated to wipe out the state’s electric grid or help build chemical weapons — scenarios that experts say could be possible in the future as technology evolves at warp speed.

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The first-of-its-kind bill aims to reduce risks created by AI. It is fiercely opposed by venture capital firms and tech companies, including Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, and Google. They say the regulations take aim at developers and instead should be focused on those who use and exploit the AI systems for harm.

Democratic state Sen. Scott Wiener, who authors the bill, said the proposal would provide reasonable safety standards by preventing “catastrophic harms” from extremely powerful AI models that may be created in the future.

The requirements would only apply to systems that cost more than $100 million in computing power to train. No current AI models have hit that threshold as of July.