Hollywood A-listers urge California governor to sign AI safety bill
Big tech firms are fighting hard against the very real possibility that California may pass the state’s first-of-its-kind AI safety bill. Now, they also have to square off against Hollywood bigwigs.
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Big tech firms are fighting hard against the very real possibility that California may pass the state’s first-of-its-kind AI safety bill. Now, they also have to square off against Hollywood bigwigs.
Senate Bill 1047 would force companies that spend more than $100 million on training large AI models to do thorough safety testing. If the firms don’t, they would be liable if the systems led to a “mass casualty event” or more than $500 million in damages in a single incident.
In recent weeks, though, California governor Gavin Newsom has begun publicly signaling his doubts about the bill, saying he was worried about its impact on competitiveness – the same argument tech companies and their lobbyists have been using.
State legislators already approved SB 1047 on August 28th, but Newsom still needs to either sign or veto it. Last week, however, even after signing other laws regulating AI deepfakes, the governor said: “The impact of signing wrong bills over the course of a few years could have a profound impact on the state’s competitiveness.”
Now, Hollywood has spoken. In an open letter published on Tuesday, over 125 stars of the entertainment industry – the faces of California – urged Newsom to sign the AI safety bill.
Signatures include Jane Fonda, Jessica Alba, Mahershala Ali, Judd Apatow, Alec Baldwin, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Pedro Pascal, Shonda Rhimes, and many others.
They all belong to the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, a powerful union. It held a successful strike in 2023, which ended, among other wins, in stronger protections against the threat of AI to the industry.
“Grave threats from AI used to be the stuff of science fiction, but not anymore. Even though the billionaire opponents of SB 1047 dismiss these concerns as fantastical, many of the industry’s leading engineers, academics, and policymakers warn otherwise,” states the letter to Newsom.
If he signed the bill, it would no longer allow the US tech industry – mostly based in California – to essentially police itself and deploy powerful models via voluntary commitments anymore.
Opponents of the bill are furious, but its supporters point out that the document covers only truly expensive AI models. They are, of course, built by very rich tech companies, and they can surely afford implementing any kinds of safeguards in their models or dealing with potential liability.
A couple of weeks ago, at least 113 current and former employees of leading AI companies such as OpenAI, Google DeepMind, Anthropic, Meta, and xAI also signed and published an open letter in support of SB 1047. Some of them even openly contradict their employer’s official stance against the bill.
“We believe that the most powerful AI models may soon pose severe risks, such as expanded access to biological weapons and cyberattacks on critical infrastructure,” said the letter.
“It is feasible and appropriate for frontier AI companies to test whether the most powerful AI models can cause severe harms, and for these companies to implement reasonable safeguards against such risks.”
Elon Musk also supports SB 1047. On X, the platform he owns, the tech billionaire said: “For over 20 years, I have been an advocate for AI regulation, just as we regulate any product/technology that is a potential risk to the public.”