Hyperdimensional

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ntroduction
SB 1047 was vetoed yesterday by California Governor Gavin Newsom. The bill would have imposed a liability regime for large AI models (proponents would say it clarifies existing liability), mandated Know Your Customer (KYC) rules for data centers, created an AI safety auditing industry and an accompanying regulator to oversee that industry, granted broad whistleblower protections to AI company staff, initiated a California-owned public compute infrastructure, and more.

It was a sweeping bill, no matter what how many different ways proponents discovered to say the bill was “light touch.” Indeed, of the major provisions listed above, really only the first (liability) was a subject of significant public debate. The fact that a major issue like data center KYC barely warranted discussion is a signal of just how ambitious SB 1047 was.

Governor Newsom is therefore wise to have vetoed the bill; at the end of the day, it was simply biting off more than it could chew.

If you got your information purely from X, you would assume that Governor Newsom has abandoned AI regulation and is keen to let a thousand flowers bloom. The reality, though, is much more complicated. First, by his own count, the Governor signed 17 other AI-related bills from this legislative session alone. Second, in his veto message, Governor Newsom was clear about his intention to regulate AI even more in the future, including for California to serve as America’s main AI regulator if need be (emphasis added):