OpenAI CEO Says California AI Safety Law Could Leisurely Progress

In a fresh letter, OpenAI Chief Strategy Officer Jason Kwon urges that AI regulation should be left to the federal government. As previously reported BloombergKwon says a fresh AI safety bill California is working on could leisurely progress and cause companies to leave the state.

A set of AI policies that is set at the federal level, rather than a set of state laws, will foster innovation and allow the United States to lead in developing global standards. As a result, we join other AI labs, developers, experts, and members of the California congressional delegation in respectfully opposing SB 1047 and welcome the opportunity to outline some of our key concerns.

The letter is addressed to California State Senator Scott Wiener, who originally introduced SB1047also known as the Safe and sound Innovation Act for Pioneering AI Models.

According to advocates like Wiener, the measure sets standards for the development of more advanced AI models, requires precautions such as pre-deployment security testing and other safeguards, adds whistleblower protections for employees of AI labs, gives the California attorney general the authority to take legal action if AI models cause harm, and calls for the creation of a “public cloud computing cluster” called CalCompute.

IN reply to letter published Wednesday evening, Wiener points out that the proposed requirements apply to any company doing business in California, regardless of whether they are headquartered in the state or not, so the argument “doesn’t make sense.” He also writes that OpenAI “…does not criticize a single provision of the bill,” and concludes, “SB 1047 is a very sensible bill that requires large AI labs to do what they have already committed to doing, namely test their large models for catastrophic safety risks.”

The bill is now awaiting a final vote before heading to Governor Gavin Newsom’s desk.

Here is the full text of the OpenAI letter: