The State Senate California approved a bill on Thursday that tightens restrictions on the use of artificial intelligence (AI), a measure that has faced pushback from the country’s leading technology companies. Silicon Valley.
“By a vote of 29 to 9, the Senate has just given final approval to SB 1047, our AI safety bill,” the senator reported in a message on X. Scott Wienerpromoter of this measure.
The document, which was overwhelmingly approved by the California State Assembly on Wednesday, had already received support from the Senate, but was put to the vote again today after new amendments were incorporated.
After this procedural step, the measure must now be presented to the Governor of California, Gavin Newsomwho has until September 30 to decide whether to sign or veto the project.
If approved by Newsom, the one known as Golden State would join the countries of Union European in creating a framework to regulate technology that exploits areas such as human-like chatbots or realistic image and video generators.
The measure “establishes common-sense safeguards, the first in the nation, to protect society from the use of AI to conduct cyberattacks on critical infrastructure, develop chemical, nuclear or biological weapons, or unleash automated crimes,” Wiener’s office said in a statement.
Even though the tycoons like Elon Musk have expressed support for the measure, most San Francisco-based companies have opposed the plan, which they say poses a threat to AI development and could cause a flight of entrepreneurs and engineers to Silicon Valley just as the sector is beginning to show signs of recovery from the COVID-19 crisis. ET
