SB 1047: The AI Regulation Bill Causing Disaster Debates
In August 2024, California Senator Scott Wiener introduced SB 1047, a bill designed to mandate AI developers to make the technology safer and comply with a range of requirements.
The proposal is timely, with AI more frequently being used maliciously to incite harm and damage the reputation of companies and public figures. These incidents are particularly concerning in the lead up to the US Election in November 2024, with deepfakes and false information being spread by threat actors to disrupt public opinion.
Yet, whilst technology giants are supportive of incoming regulations, many have publicly opposed SB 1047. Common worries are that the bill will not fit into the current AI regulatory landscape and result in innovation being suppressed.
What is Bill SB 1047?
Aiming to ensure the safe development of AI systems, SB 1047 is designed to put more responsibility on AI developers building large AI models. This would mean they would have to take greater precautions on safety testing, implementing safeguards and post-deployment monitoring.
As part of these requirements, the bill also calls for developers to hire third-party auditors to assess safety practices. These auditors would then provide additional protections to those speaking out against people abusing AI.
The bill also requires safety protocols If developers are not compliant with the bill, then the state attorney general could sue them - which is viewed as essential, given the ongoing AI threat landscape. These emergency measures would include an ‘emergency stop’ button that would have the power to shut down the entire AI model.
Since the bill was first proposed, it has achieved the backing of some major players in the technology sector, including two of the ‘godfathers of AI’ Geoffrey Hinton and Yoshua Bengio. Geoffrey Hinton famously resigned from Google in 2023 due to concerns over the way AI models were being developed and their associated risks.
Businesses and workers alike are concerned about the true scale of AI’s impact, with many anxious that AI will take away jobs from the workforce if it's not properly regulated.
Why are tech companies expressing concerns?
Technology companies developing AI are using the technology for a broad range of tasks, including the completion of repetitive tasks and responding to prompts. These organisations have been open to the need for AI regulations, with some even forming the Frontier Model Forum in 2023 to prioritise safer development.
However, plenty do not support SB 1047. Already in a letter to Senator Wiener, both Meta and Google have said the bill will threaten AI innovation and research efforts. Likewise, OpenAI is in opposition to the bill because it could threaten the growth of AI, with the company citing concerns about the bill causing valuable talent to leave California and take their skills with them.
“The AI revolution is only just beginning, and California’s unique status as the global leader in AI is fuelling the state’s economic dynamism,” OpenAI Chief Strategy Officer Jason Kwon recently argued. “SB 1047 would threaten that growth, slow the pace of innovation, and lead California’s world-class engineers and entrepreneurs to leave the state in search of greater opportunities elsewhere.”
Other opposers include the so-called ‘Godmother of AI’ Fei-Fei Li, who wrote via Fortune: “AI policy must encourage innovation, set appropriate restrictions and mitigate the implications of those restrictions. Policy that doesn’t will at best fall short of its goals, and at worst lead to dire, if unintended, consequences.
“If passed into law, SB-1047 will harm our budding AI ecosystem, especially the parts of it that are already at a disadvantage to today’s tech giants: the public sector, academia and “little tech.” SB-1047 will unnecessarily penalise developers, stifle our open-source community and hamstring academic AI research, all while failing to address the very real issues it was authored to solve.”
The future of technology in California
California has always been a hub of technology and innovation, with plenty of companies developing AI setting up bases there.
The state is not opposed to regulatory bills, with several currently being debated outside of SB 1047. In fact, the entertainment industry there recently came out in support of the No Fakes Act to make digital deepfakes illegal. However, those in opposition to SB 1047 are concerned that the bill will apply to open-source AI models, which they cite are integral to creating more responsible AI applications.
It is clear that the bill will need to be debated further before it progresses.
Nancy Pelosi, former speaker of the House of Representatives, called SB 1047 “well-intentioned but ill-informed,” saying that California can only lead in AI if it protects data and intellectual property.
“There are many proposals in the California legislature in addition to SB 1047,” she noted. “Reviewing them all enables a comprehensive understanding of the best path forward for our great state.”
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