Representative Nancy Pelosi has voiced opposition to a high-profile California bill that would regulate Big Tech companies’ burgeoning artificial intelligence technology, calling the measure “well-intentioned but ill-informed.”
California’s SB 1047, which would establish safety standards for AI models that cost more than $100 million to train and mandate pre-release safety testing of so-called “frontier” AI models, among other requirements, is opposed by tech industry leaders including Meta, Google and venture firm Andreesen Horowitz.
Pelosi, a California Democrat who has come under fire for holding a lucrative stock portfolio during her time in office that included AI chip supplier Nvidia, software company Databricks and other large tech companies, argued the bill could stifle innovation.
“We want California to lead the way on AI in a way that protects consumers, data, intellectual property and more, but SB 1047 does more harm than good in that pursuit,” Pelosi said in a lengthy statement.
Pelosi noted that several California Democrats, including Reps. Zoe Lofgren, Anna Eshoo and Ro Khanna, as well as Governor Gavin Newsom, have expressed concerns about the bill or oppose it outright.
Speaker Pelosi also cited Stanford University AI researcher Fei-Fei Li, who warned that the bill “will have serious unintended consequences, stifle innovation, and damage the U.S. AI ecosystem.”
The bill was introduced by California Sen. Scott Weiner, who is widely expected to take on Pelosi’s daughter, Christine, to take over her House seat when she steps down.
Wiener said he “respectfully and strongly” disagrees with Pelosi.
“Innovation and safety are not mutually exclusive, and I reject the false assertion that in order to innovate, safety must be left solely to technology companies and venture capitalists,” Weiner said.
The bill marks a key battle in the national debate over how the government should regulate powerful AI models built by companies like Google and Sam Altman’s Open AI.
Critics warn that without proper guardrails, advanced AI systems could pose huge risks to society, from spreading misinformation to the ultimate downfall of humanity.
SB 1047 is expected to be voted on by the California State Assembly by the end of August.
Opponents of the bill argue that it will only harm America’s attempts to lead the advanced AI race.
Yann LeCun, head of Meta AI, in June He argued for the bill’s approach to regulating AI. “It will put an end to innovation.”
To ease industry concerns, California lawmakers amended the bill earlier this month, including dropping plans to create a government agency called the Frontier Models Division (FMD) to oversee a thorough safety review.
Lawmakers also removed a provision that would have allowed California’s attorney general to directly sue AI companies if they found them to be lax on safety measures.
Antropic, the Google and Amazon-backed AI giant, had been pushing for the change. Anthropik told TechCrunch He said the revised bill was still under consideration and not all of the proposals had been adopted.
Still, the revised version of the bill did not satisfy all opponents.
“Editing is just a gimmick,” says Andreessen Horowitz partner Martin Casado wrote in X“They don’t address the real problems and criticisms of the bill.”
