Rep. Nancy Pelosi has come out against a high-profile California state bill that would regulate Big Tech’s fast-growing artificial intelligence technology – describing the bill as “well-intentioned but ill-informed.”
California’s SB 1047 would establish safety standards for AI models that cost more than $100 million to train and mandate pre-release safety testing for so-called “frontier” AI models, among other requirements. It is opposed by the tech industry, including Meta, Google and venture firm Andreesen Horowitz.
Pelosi (D-Calif.) – who has come under fire for owning a lucrative stock portfolio that includes AI chip supplier Nvidia, software firm Databricks and other major tech firms while still in office – argued the bill could stifle innovation.
“While we want California to lead in AI in a way that protects consumers, data, intellectual property and more, SB 1047 is more harmful than helpful in that pursuit,” Pelosi said in a lengthy statement.
Pelosi noted that several California Democratic lawmakers, including Reps. Zoe Lofgren, Anna Eshoo and Ro Khanna and Gov. Gavin Newsom, have expressed concerns about the legislation or outright opposed it.
She also cited the view of Stanford University AI scholar Fei-Fei Li, who has warned the bill “would have significant unintended consequences that would stifle innovation and will harm the US AI ecosystem,” according to Pelosi’s statement.
The bill was introduced by California State Sen. Scott Weiner, who is widely expected to run against Pelosi’s daughter, Christine, to take over her US House seat when the former speaker leaves office.
Weiner said he “respectfully and strongly” disagreed with Pelosi.
“Innovation and safety are not mutually exclusive, and I reject the false claim that in order to innovate, we must leave safety solely in the hands of technology companies and venture capitalists,” Weiner said.
The legislation is a key fight in the national debate over how the government should regulate the powerful AI models built by the likes of Google and Sam Altman’s OpenAI.
Critics warn that advanced AI systems could pose a major risk to society – from the spread of misinformation to even the destruction of humanity – without proper guardrails in place.
SB 1047 set to receive a vote in the California state assembly by the end of August.
The bill’s detractors assert that the legislation will only hurt the US in its bid to lead the race of advanced AI.
In June, Meta AI chief Yann LeCun argued the bill’s approach to AI regulation “will put an end to innovation.”
In an effort to assuage the industry’s concerns, California lawmakers made changes to the bill earlier this month, such as dropping plans to create a government agency called the Frontier Model Division (FMD) to oversee the safety overhaul.
Lawmakers also dropped a clause that would have allowed California’s state attorney general to directly sue AI firms if they were determined to be negligent their safety practices.
Anthropic, the AI giant backed by Google and Amazon, had pushed for that change. After the changes were announced, Anthropic told TechCrunch that it was still reviewing the amended bill and that not all of its proposals had been adopted.
Still, the amended version of the bill hasn’t satisfied all detractors.
“The edits are window dressing,” Andreesen Horowitz partner Martin Casado wrote on X. “They don’t address the real issues or criticisms of the bill.”
