Gov. Gavin Newsom signs AI safety bill into law

Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed an AI safety protection bill into law.

Senate Bill 53, the first of its kind in the nation, requires the largest AI companies to publicly disclose their safety and security protocols, report the most critical safety incidents and protect whistleblowers.

The new law would prohibit developers of certain artificial intelligence models from enforcing policies that prevent employees from disclosing information or retaliating against those who report concerns.

The bill would also create a public cloud compute cluster, CalCompute, that provides AI infrastructure for startups and researchers.

“California has proven that we can establish regulations to protect our communities while also ensuring that the growing AI industry continues to thrive. This legislation strikes that balance,” Newsom said in a statement.

The law would be enforced by the state attorney general’s office.

“With a technology as transformative as AI, we have a responsibility to support that innovation while putting in place commonsense guardrails to understand and reduce risk. With this law, California is stepping up, once again, as a global leader on both technology innovation and safety,” Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), who authored the bill, said in a statement.

The bill passed one year after Newsom vetoed a similar bill from Weiner.