California Senator Plans to Weave Governor's AI Recommendations Into Bill
Some recommendations from last month’s California Frontier AI report (see 2506170051) could be added to an AI bill (SB-53) by Sen. Scott Wiener (D), the state lawmaker said Tuesday at a livestreamed Assembly Judiciary Committee session. The committee unanimously cleared SB-53, sending it to the Privacy Committee.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Privacy Daily provides accurate coverage of newsworthy developments in data protection legislation, regulation, litigation, and enforcement for privacy professionals responsible for ensuring effective organizational data privacy compliance.
The Frontier AI report called for “targeted interventions” that “balance the technology’s benefits and material risks.” Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) ordered the report after vetoing Wiener’s controversial bill on AI frontier models last year (see 2409300011).
Wiener said he saw “some very solid recommendations" in the report, and he's working with the Assembly Privacy Committee on a possible amendment that weaves them into SB-53.
As approved by the Judiciary Committee, the legislation would provide whistleblower protection to employees at AI developers. Also, it would create a consortium to develop a framework for a public cloud computing cluster called CalCompute to advance AI in a safe and ethical way.
Earlier in his opening testimony, Wiener applauded advocacy by California legislators that may have helped lead to the U.S. Senate’s 99-1 vote to remove the AI moratorium from Congress’ big budget bill (see 2507010071). AI could make the world a “better place … but as with any powerful technology, there are risks, and we want to get ahead of those risks,” he said.