California passes controversial bill regulating AI model training [Video]

As the world debates what is right and what is wrong about generative AI, the California State Assembly and Senate have just passed the Safe and Secure Innovation for Frontier Artificial Intelligence Models Act bill (SB 1047), which is one of the first significant regulations for AIs in the United States.

The bill, which was voted on Thursday (via The Verge), has been the subject of debate in Silicon Valley as it essentially mandates that AI companies operating in California implement a series of precautions before training a “sophisticated foundation model.”

With the new law, developers will have to make sure that they can quickly and completely shut down an AI model if it is deemed unsafe. Language models will also need to be protected against “unsafe post-training modifications” or anything that could cause “critical harm.” Senators describe the bill as “safeguards to protect society” from the misuse of AI.

Professor Hinton, former AI lead at Google, …