West

Newsom vetoes bill to establish first-in-nation AI safety regulations in California

Published

2 years ago

October 1, 2024

Newsom vetoes bill to establish first-in-nation AI safety regulations in California

California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, on Sunday vetoed a bill to create safety measures for large artificial intelligence models, which would have been the first such law in the nation.

The governor’s veto delivers a major setback to attempts to create guardrails around AI and its rapid evolution with little oversight, according to The Associated Press. The legislation faced staunch opposition from startups, tech giants and several Democratic lawmakers.

Newsom said earlier this month at Dreamforce, an annual conference hosted by software giant Salesforce, that California must lead in regulating AI as the federal government has failed to put safety measures in place, but that the proposal “can have a chilling effect on the industry.”

S.B. 1047, the governor said, could have hurt the homegrown industry by setting up strict requirements.

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California Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed a bill to create safety measures for large artificial intelligence models in the Golden State. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)

“While well-intentioned, SB 1047 does not take into account whether an AI system is deployed in high-risk environments, involves critical decision-making or the use of sensitive data,” Newsom said in a statement. “Instead, the bill applies stringent standards to even the most basic functions — so long as a large system deploys it. I do not believe this is the best approach to protecting the public from real threats posed by the technology.”

Newsom announced instead that the state will partner with several industry experts to develop safety measures for powerful AI models.

S.B. 1047 would have required companies to test their models and publicly disclose their safety protocols to prevent the models from being manipulated for harmful purposes, such as, for example, wiping out the state’s electric grid or helping to build chemical weapons, scenarios that experts say could be possible in the future as the industry continues to rapidly evolve.

The legislation also would have provided whistleblower protection to industry workers.

Democratic state Sen. Scott Weiner, who authored the bill, said the veto was “a setback for everyone who believes in oversight of massive corporations that are making critical decisions that affect the safety and the welfare of the public and the future of the planet.”

“The companies developing advanced AI systems acknowledge that the risks these models present to the public are real and rapidly increasing,” he said in a statement. “While the large AI labs have made admirable commitments to monitor and mitigate these risks, the truth is that voluntary commitments from industry are not enforceable and rarely work out well for the public.”

Wiener said the debate around the bill has helped put a spotlight on the issue of AI safety, and that he would continue pushing to advance safety measures around the technology.

Tech billionaire Elon Musk supported the measure.

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Newsom announced that, rather than adopt the legislation, the state will partner with several industry experts to develop safety measures for powerful AI models. (Don Campbell/The Herald-Palladium via AP)

The proposal is one of several bills passed by the state Legislature this year seeking to regulate AI, combat deepfakes and protect workers. State lawmakers said California must take actions this year, pointing to the results of failing to rein in social media companies when they might have had an opportunity.

Supporters of the bill said it could have presented some transparency and accountability around large-scale AI models, as developers and experts say they still do not have a full understanding of how AI models behave.

The bill sought to address systems that require a high level of computing power and more than $100 million to build. No current AI models have met that criteria, but some experts say that could change within the next year.

“This is because of the massive investment scale-up within the industry,” Daniel Kokotajlo, a former OpenAI researcher who stepped down earlier this year over what he described as the company’s disregard for AI risks, told The Associated Press. “This is a crazy amount of power to have any private company control unaccountably, and it’s also incredibly risky.”

The U.S. is behind Europe in regulating the growing technology that is raising concerns about job loss, misinformation, invasions of privacy and automation bias, supporters of the measure said. The California bill was not as comprehensive as regulations in Europe, but the supporters say it would have been a step in the right direction.

Last year, several leading AI companies voluntarily agreed to follow safeguards set by the White House, which include testing and sharing information about their models. The California bill, according to its supporters, would have required AI developers to follow requirements similar to those safeguards.

But critics of the measure argued that it would harm tech and stifle innovation in the Golden State. The proposal would have discouraged AI developers from investing in large models or sharing open-source software, according to the critics, which include U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.

Two other AI proposals, which also faced opposition from the tech industry, did not pass ahead of a legislative deadline last month. The bills would have required AI developers to label AI-generated content and prohibit discrimination by AI tools used to make employment decisions.

California state Sen. Scott Wiener said the debate around the bill has helped put a spotlight on the issue of AI safety. (Scott Wiener )

California lawmakers are still considering new rules against AI discrimination in hiring practices.

The governor previously said he wanted to protect the state’s status as a global leader in AI, citing that 32 of the world’s top 50 AI companies are in the Golden State.

Newsom has said California is an early adopter of AI, as the state could deploy generative AI tools in the near future to combat highway congestion, provide tax guidance and streamline homelessness programs.

Earlier this month, Newsom signed some of the strictest laws in the country to fight against election deepfakes and adopt measures to protect Hollywood workers from unauthorized AI use.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Washington

NOAA outlines why Washington’s snowpack fell short after a brutal winter

Published

10 minutes ago

May 16, 2026

Press Room

NOAA outlines why Washington’s snowpack fell short after a brutal winter

SEATTLE — It was a brutal winter for the snowpack in the western states, including Washington, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

That has current snowpack levels beyond bleak.

ALSO SEE | Pass travelers to encounter wintry driving in the Cascades this weekend

A map from NOAA shows the percentage of typical moisture in the snowpack across the West. It’s based on the median of the last 35 years.

An 8-14 day precipitation outlook. (NOAA)

Parts of the Cascades have just 13 to 27 percent of the water we could expect in our snowpack this time of year. The Olympics are at just 10 percent.

It was hoped that snowfall in April and May in some areas would offset the snow deficit, but that didn’t happen.

A dry snowpack is going to be a strain on agricultural water use this summer and will boost fire danger during the hottest months of the year.

What comes next?

Fin, Win, and their uncle Shawn were surprised and delighted by the unexpected April snowfall in the Cascades. (KOMO)

According to the 8-14 day precipitation outlook from NOAA, our state can expect equal chances of the typical amount of wetness over the next 2 weeks.

At the same time, government forecasters are expecting a 33 to 40 percent chance of above normal temperatures.

JOIN THE CONVERSATION (4)

Forecasters are hoping for a surge of spring rain to at least delay a spike in the fire danger, but without a healthy snowpack heading into the summer months, water supplies could be bleak in parts of our state.

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Wyoming

(LETTERS) Republican values and homeowners associations

Published

28 minutes ago

May 16, 2026

Press Room

(LETTERS) Republican values and homeowners associations

Oil City News publishes letters, cartoons and opinions as a public service. The content does not necessarily reflect the opinions of Oil City News or its employees. Letters to the editor can be submitted by following the link at our opinion section.

When ‘Republican values’ trump the rule of law

Dear Casper,

I have lived in Wyoming my entire life. I come from a multi-generational, historically rooted Wyoming family. And yet, as I watch the decisions being made for our beautiful state, I find it harder and harder to find a reason to stay.

Our leadership, and the parties they affiliate with, seem to consistently forget that laws are not mere suggestions to be ignored when they become inconvenient. Following them should be black and white.

For decades, Wyo. Stat. § 22-4-105 has ensured that the parties remain neutral vessels for the people’s will until we, the voters, choose our nominee. The recent move by the State Republican GOP to vet and endorse candidates before the primary isn’t just a change in strategy; it’s a dismissal of not only the state statute but also of the voters who live, work and vote here.

Secretary of State Chuck Gray has built a brand on “election integrity,” yet boasts that his actions — including those his critics have heavily questioned — are simply him upholding “Republican values.” But here lies a disturbing question: How can one claim to be the champion of election integrity while simultaneously supporting a party apparatus that treats the Wyoming Supreme Court’s rulings as optional?

For those who may think, “It’s just one candidate, what could the harm be?” let’s look at how Wyoming’s voting power is already so lopsided. Our party structure is built on a “one county, one vote” system. This means those in our least populated counties carry the same voting weight as the thousands of voters in Laramie or Natrona counties.

By allowing the Republican party to vet and endorse candidates before the public even sees the ballot, the GOP is effectively gerrymandering the primary. They are narrowing the field to only those who pass their “test,” stopping the average hardworking Wyomingite from ever truly weighing in.

This leads us to a fundamental question all voters in this state need to ask: Who does the Wyoming Republican Party think their boss is?

Is it the figureheads in Washington? A small circle of party elites in Douglas? Or is it us, their constituents — the ranchers, the miners, the teachers, the parents — who actually cast the votes and have to live with the consequences of the policies made for our state?

Jessica Mantell
Cheyenne

Homeowners associations do not align with Wyoming values

Dear Casper,

To start, having any HOA in Wyoming outside of Jackson seems wild to me. We are the most conservative, anti-big government state in the union. We as a collective are vehemently against taxation and governmental control.

So why then do we willingly allow and join HOA programs? These organizations are liberal government at its finest. You don’t actually own your properties that reside in an HOA as one rule infraction can cause you to lose everything you worked so hard for and already paid for.

Even AI understands this and I am putting an AI analysis of HOA’s below:

An overreaching liberal government and an HOA often function like the same creature wearing different uniforms. One calls it taxation, the other calls it fees, assessments, or compliance penalties, but the playbook stays suspiciously familiar: create layers of rules, attach financial punishment to violations, then claim it’s all for “community standards” or “public good.” In both systems, property owners are sold the idea of ownership, only to learn that missing a payment, painting a fence the wrong shade of beige, or cutting grass wrong. can trigger liens, legal threats, or attempts to seize what they already paid for. It stops looking like governance and starts looking like legalized extortion with meeting minutes.

As a people, we need to castrate all HOAs’ abilities to steal our homes, livelihoods and properties.

In my opinion, any person that joins an HOA board and enforces rules that can steal someone’s home or levy fines that would create a financial hardship over an RV parked on the property, wrong paint color or cutting grass is no longer a freedom-loving Wyomingite and is instead no better then the socialist governments of places like California or New York.

Mike Hinton
Casper

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