California Senator Responds to OpenAI Opposition to AI Bill

OpenAI opposes a California bill that would place new safety requirements on artificial intelligence (AI) companies, saying that the bill would limit innovation and that this issue should be dealt with at the federal level.

The bill (Senate Bill 1047) would also impact U.S. competitiveness on AI and the country’s national security, OpenAI said in a letter that it sent to the state senator who wrote the bill. The company shared the letter in an email to PYMNTS.

“The AI revolution is only just beginning, and California’s unique status as the global leader in AI is fueling the state’s economic dynamism,” OpenAI Chief Strategy Officer Jason Kwon wrote in the letter sent to California State Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco. “SB 1047 would threaten that growth, slow the pace of innovation, and lead California’s world-class engineers and entrepreneurs to leave the state in search of greater opportunity elsewhere.”

In a press release issued Wednesday in response to OpenAI opposition to SB 1047, Wiener said that the company’s letter does not criticize “a single provision of the bill,” and instead argues that this issue should be left to the U.S. Congress.

“As I’ve stated repeatedly, I agree that ideally Congress would handle this,” Wiener wrote in the letter. “However, Congress has not done so, and we are skeptical Congress will do so.”

Addressing other concerns that he said OpenAI outlined in its letter, Wiener said in his response that the bill’s requirements would strengthen national security by making AI companies thoroughly test their products. He also said that it would not make sense for companies to leave California if the bill passes because the bill would still apply to them — it applies to any company doing business in the state.

“Bottom line: SB 1047 is a highly reasonable bill that asks large AI labs to do what they’ve already committed to doing, namely, test their large models for catastrophic safety risk,” Wiener wrote.

The AI bill is advancing through the state legislature, but only with significant modifications and intense debate within the tech industry, PYMNTS reported Monday (Aug. 19).

For all PYMNTS AI coverage, subscribe to the daily AI Newsletter.