Elon Musk Supports California's AI Safety Act Amidst Opposition from Competitors
TapTechNews August 27th news, Tesla and xAI's chief executive Elon Musk expressed support for California's AI Safety Act, which is expected to impose stricter regulations on this emerging industry.
On Monday, Musk posted on X that California's bill SB1047 should pass. Musk wrote, This is a difficult decision and may frustrate some people, but all things considered, I think California should pass the SB1047 AI Safety Act. I have been advocating for the regulation of AI for over 20 years, just like we regulate any product/technology with potential risks to the public.
SB1047 will require some of the largest AI models (models with a cost of at least 100 million US dollars) to report intelligent safety issues when developed and need to submit reports evaluating the risks associated with the model. The bill will also establish a new agency in California, named the Frontier Model Division (FMD).
The bill has officially passed the California Assembly Appropriations committee and will now be submitted to the full assembly for a final vote. If passed, it will be sent to Governor Gavin Newsom for signature, who needs to sign the bill into law by the end of the month.
TapTechNews noted that Musk had previously warned about AI safety issues. Last September, he told legislators that if not regulated, AI could pose a civilizational risk.
It is worth mentioning that the bill has been opposed by OpenAI, led by Musk's competitor Sam Altman. OpenAI released an open letter on August 21 local time, opposing the draft of the Safe and Reliable Frontier AI Model Innovation Act proposed by the US California senator, saying that the draft may threaten California's future growth, slow down innovation, and drive away California's world-class engineers and entrepreneurs, and suggesting that AI large model regulatory bills be introduced at the federal rather than local level.
In addition, Stanford University professor Li Feifei and former Baidu chief scientist Wu Enda also expressed opposition to this bill.