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California Governor Gavin Newsom has vetoed SB-1047, a hotly debated piece of artificial intelligence regulation that aimed to impose safety protocols and kill switches on large AI models to prevent potential critical harms. In his statement on Sunday evening, Newsom argued that the bill's focus on model size was misplaced and could potentially slow innovation.

“By focusing only on the most expensive and large-scale models, SB-1047 establishes a regulatory framework that could give the public a false sense of security about controlling this fast-moving technology," Newsom stated. He emphasized that smaller, specialized models could pose equal or greater risks than those targeted by the bill, which could stifle innovation beneficial to the public good.

Newsom highlighted various rapidly evolving risks from AI models, such as threats to democratic processes, misinformation spread, deepfakes, online privacy breaches, critical infrastructure threats, and workforce disruptions. He noted that California already has numerous AI laws targeting these issues, leaving room for more targeted regulations. “While well-intentioned, SB-1047 does not take into account whether an AI system is deployed in high-risk environments or involves critical decision-making or sensitive data," Newsom elaborated. "Instead, the bill applies stringent standards to even the most basic functions so long as a large system deploys it. I do not believe this is the best approach to protecting the public from real threats posed by the technology."

State Senator Scott Wiener, who co-authored the bill, called the veto a setback for public safety and oversight of AI technologies. Wiener criticized voluntary safety commitments from AI companies as insufficient and argued that the veto leaves the public less safe.

The bill, which passed the state Assembly in August, gained support from AI luminaries like Geoffrey Hinton and Yoshua Bengio but faced criticism for its heavy-handed approach and potential legal liabilities. California business leaders and lobbyists for major tech companies such as Google and Meta opposed the bill, citing burdensome compliance costs and flawed regulatory focus.

OpenAI’s Chief Strategy Officer Jason Kwon called for a federal regulatory approach rather than a patchwork of state laws, though federal legislation efforts have stalled. Elon Musk and California's actor's union SAG-AFTRA supported the bill, viewing it as a necessary step to address known dangers like deepfakes.

At the 2024 Dreamforce conference, Newsom acknowledged the significant impact such legislation could have and the potential chilling effect on the open-source community, emphasizing the need for more targeted solutions.