30 Sept 2024
California Governor Gavin Newsom has vetoed the state's AI safety bill.
The bill would have required safety testing for AI models that cost more than $100 million to develop or require a certain amount of computing power.
Developers of AI software operating in California would have had to outline methods for turning off their AI models, known as a "kill switch."
The bill would have also established a state entity to oversee the development of frontier models that "exceed the capabilities present in the most advanced existing models."
According to CNN, Newsom has agreed to work with the legislature in the coming session on new AI safety legislation.
The veto will not affect the validity of three recently-signed laws on AI watermarking and deepfakes (SB 942 on provenance disclosures for AI-generated images, SB 926 criminalising deep-fake sexual imagery, and SB 981 on sexually-explicit digital identity theft).