California censorship could crush America's latest tech revolution, experts say

• California lawmakers are crafting numerous AI-related bills aimed at addressing what they see as the technology's most troubling risks, including “misinformation” and “discrimination,” according to Politico.
• Some of the bills target technology-enabled “disinformation” such as “deepfakes,” while others go after AI-driven “discrimination” in areas like housing and employment.
• “This is just another example of legislatures grappling with AI,” Joel Thayer, president of the Digital Progress Institute, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “There is so much focus on AI applications that laws either forget the forest for the trees or become so broad that they will inevitably target protected speech. At this point, lawmakers should step up at AI regulation with a scalpel, but California is taking a hammer to it.”

California Democrats have launched a sweeping effort to reduce the risks posed by artificial intelligence (AI), a move experts say would crush the booming industry.

There are more than 12 of them AI bills focused on countering what they see as the most dangerous risks posed by the technology, such as “misinformation” and “discrimination,” Politico. reported. California it could serve as a national regulator and could stifle technological innovation across the country, while potentially infringing on free speech, experts told the Daily Caller News Foundation. (RELATED: Pro-Censorship Organization Megadonor Starts $30 Million 'Inclusive' AI Fund With White House)

California state regulators plan to launch a regulatory assault on artificial intelligence.

They intend to kill any AI companies that aren't big tech startups with millions to spend on lobbying.

They want centralized power in Google, Facebook, Microsoft. pic.twitter.com/dRuP4D5sLF

— Yvonne | PR Spox ️ (@ydbeep) December 5, 2023

“This is just another example of legislatures grappling with AI,” Joel Thayer, president of the Digital Progress Institute, told DCNF. “There is so much focus on AI applications that laws either forget the forest for the trees or become so broad that they will inevitably target protected speech. At this point, lawmakers should step up at AI regulation with a scalpel, but California is taking a hammer to it.”

California's actions could cause the United States to fall behind China and other countries AI technology careersaid Adam Thierer, senior fellow at the R Street Institute, at the DCNF.

“California is once again seeking to dictate US policy, and if it gets it right with AI, it will have devastating ramifications for algorithmic innovation in our nation at a time when competition with China and other countries is 'is intensifying'. Thierer told the DCNF. “AI innovations are vulnerable to California threats because Congress is now so dysfunctional that it can't even take basic steps to create a reasonable national framework for technology policy… Congress is now MIA on AI and California is about to fill the void with too much regulation that kills innovation.”

One of the state bills, AB 331, would make it illegal to use AI commit in “algorithmic discrimination” in areas such as housing and employment, seconds in your text. Bay Area Democratic Assemblywoman Rebecca Bauer-Kahan introduced it in January, but it stalled in May when tech lobbyists and some lawmakers opposed it, saying it the language was vague and would hurt California innovation. seconds to Bloomberg law.

“It's troubling that in states like California, lawmakers are trying to take advantage of the rapid advancement of this technology and the demand for policy solutions to push their agenda of censorship and social justice,” Jake Denton, research associate at the Center for Technology Policy at the Heritage Foundation. he told the DCNF. “Engaging in debates about censorship and bias will distract from crucial issues that need immediate attention and risk derailing progress toward robust AI policy… Lawmakers must resist the temptation to abuse the need to AI politics to advance their partisan agendas.”

California is a major hub for technology and AI in particular, making it a prime model for other Democratic-led states to craft AI protections, according to Politico.

“California's regulatory actions may become de facto federal policy either by being copied by other states or because of the significant requirements needed for compliance,” said Jennifer Huddleston, a technology policy researcher at the Cato Institute. in the DCNF. “It could deter innovators from launching products in California and instead turn to more innovation-friendly markets…More worryingly, however, it could prevent action across the country, as it may not be possible to meet an AI regulation only in California.”

Sen. Scott Wiener, D-Calif., introduced SB-294 in February, which would regulate dangers such as deep counterfeiting and biological weapons, seconds in your text. Deepfakes are fake but realistic-looking visual imitations, often of a real person, that are becoming more widespread, leading federal lawmakers to raise concerns which could enable financial fraud and intellectual property theft.

“Some of this is not futuristic,” Wiener told Politico. “These are risks that are with us right now, and we are well behind schedule in addressing them.”

Another state bill, AB-972, makes it illegal to manipulate the media to produce certain misleading content during elections, seconds in your text. California Governor Gavin Newsom approved it in September 2022.

It covers media editing to the extent that it “would cause a reasonable person to have a fundamentally different understanding or impression of the expressive content of the image or audio or video recording than that person would have if they were listening to or viewing the 'unaltered original. version,' the text explains.

“This is a new effort to control speech in the 2024 election,” Carl Szabo, vice president and general counsel of technology trade group NetChoice, told the DCNF. “What we're seeing are broad definitions with broad government powers, which would lead to broad bans on words the party in power doesn't like… This is not about protecting elections; it's about protecting incumbent lawmakers from challengers.”

California's SB-721 seeks to establish a task force to assess the “reliability” of AI systems to work as designed and figure out ways to crack down on AI “disinformation campaigns.” seconds in your text. The state's AB-302 mandates a review of how AI systems are fighting risks “including cybersecurity risk and the risk of inaccurate, unfairly discriminatory or biased decisions by the automated decision system.” seconds in your text; Newsom approved it in October.

There are even more AI bills on the way, according to Politico. Bauer-Kahan says lawmakers made mistakes in the past by not tightly regulating the Internet when it was new, and hopes they won't make the same mistakes with AI.

“I hope we're learning lessons from the advent of the Internet, where we didn't act regulatoryly the way we needed to,” Bauer-Kahan told Politico.

Safety should be the top priority with AI, but lawmakers should be careful because “it's too early in the life cycle of this technology” to draw conclusions about AI's impacts, he said in Politician Newsom's point man on AI Jason Elliott. California lawmakers seem more passionate about cracking down on the technology than Newsom.

In addition to establishing regulations for the entire country, California's upcoming laws could significantly increase Europe's strict technology regulations, according to Politico. The European union is also moving forward with an AI Act, which recently reached a tipping point in negotiations for broad regulations for the technology, seconds in the New York Times.

“Fortunately, we have resisted following the EU's approach to AI at the national level,” Foundation for American Innovation senior economist Samuel Hammond told the DCNF. “Unfortunately, we've put a lot of our AI industry's eggs in one basket, California, where state politics isn't exactly conservative-friendly.”

Newsom's office pointed out to the DCNF a Press release to that of the governor executive orderwhich tries to balance the risks of technology while remaining innovative.

Wiener and Bauer-Kahan did not respond to DCNF's requests for comment.

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