A nine-month push by California lawmakers to impose fresh regulations on the tech industry concluded over the weekend with a series of high-profile wins and some spectacular defeats.
Democrats pursued a slew of new restrictions this year aimed at artificial intelligence, social media, autonomous vehicles, data privacy and other tech-related subjects.
The bills that were passed in the legislative session’s final days now face one more hurdle: Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) has until Sept. 30 to sign or veto legislation.
AI regulation was one of the top issues of the regular session, which ended Saturday. Rapid advancements in generative AI has thrust the technology into the mainstream. In all, the legislature passed 20 of the 30 AI-related bills it considered, according to tracking by Tech Policy Press.
Sen. Scott Wiener (D) scored a major victory with a first-in-the-nation measure to place safeguards on AI systems that cost more than $100 million to train. The bill split the AI community and spurred opposition from members of the congressional delegation
The Safe and Secure Innovation for Frontier Artificial Intelligence Models Act aims to prevent the largest, most powerful AI models from going rogue and unleashing mass casualty events. It requires developers to test their systems before and after deployment and build in kill switches, among other safety requirements.
“Innovation and safety can go hand in hand — and California is leading the way,” Wiener said in a statement after his bill achieved final passage.
Other AI-related bills passed include:
- Requiring developers to disclose information about how their models were trained.
- Mandating that generative AI systems come with a free tool that can be used to detect if content was AI-generated.
- Protecting actors and other performers at risk of having their likeness digitally replicated and a separate bill to protect deceased performers from AI replicas.
- Updating the state’s child pornography law to include images altered or generated by AI.
One closely watched California AI bill was not passed. Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan’s (D) second attempt in two years to regulate the use of AI-backed automated decision-making systems faltered at the finish line when it did not come up for a vote in the Senate.
Bauer-Kahan said she held the bill, which originally sought to protect consumers from AI discrimination in a range of high-stakes arenas such as employment, education, housing and health care. But the Senate Appropriations Committee amended it to only cover employment-related discrimination.
“While we had the votes for passage, getting the policy right is priority one,” Bauer-Kahan said in a statement to Pluribus News. “I look forward to putting forth a stronger bill next year that protects Californians from biased ADTs in all necessary spaces with strong enforcement. This remains a critical issue and one I refuse to let California get wrong.”
Among the others not passed was a proposed ban on training AI models with the data of minors under 16 years old without a parent’s permission.
Beyond AI, efforts to regulate social media companies to protect youth also produced mixed results.
Sen. Nancy Skinner’s (D) bill that would bar addictive social media feeds for minors without parental permission was passed. It would also require platforms to cease notifications during school hours and overnight and set higher privacy settings for youth by default.
Skinner said in a statement that the bill’s passage “sent a clear message: When social media companies won’t act, it’s our responsibility to protect our kids.”
A companion measure from Assemblymember Buffy Wicks (D) that would bar the sale of youth data without a parent’s authorization was also passed. So was a bill from Sen. Thomas Umberg (D) to require social media companies to promptly comply with law enforcement search warrants.
But a proposal from Assemblymember Josh Lowenthal (D) to impose fines of up to $1 million on social media companies for harms to children was shelved after Senate committees voted to scale it back amid tech industry lobbying.
Read more: Calif. lawmaker shelves bill to fine social media companies for harms to children
Other notable tech policies that were passed included a bill from Sen. Josh Becker (D) to protect consumers’ neural data from being harvested by companies. If signed, California will join Colorado as the first two states to pass brain privacy laws.
Also passed was a first-of-its-kind measure to require Google, Safari and other web browsers, as well as mobile operating systems, to include an opt-out tool to allow users to send a signal to websites to not sell or share their information.
“California has taken another massive step to advance digital rights by passing this legislation,” Matt Schwartz, a tech and privacy analyst at Consumer Reports, said in a statement.
California lawmakers passed two notable autonomous vehicle bills in the session’s final days. One, from Assemblymember Matt Haney (D), requires companies to report any crashes, traffic violations or service disruptions to the Department of Motor Vehicles.
The second bill is a redux from last year. Authored by Assemblymember Cecilia Aguiar-Curry (D), it would require a human safety driver in autonomous trucks. Newsom vetoed last year’s bill calling it unnecessary.