California posts surprisingly promising AI Working Group draft report

California Gov. Gavin Newsom established a statewide AI working group to come up with policy recommendations. The group’s draft report came out this week, and it’s pretty good.

In late Sept. 2024, California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced the formation of a new task force known as the Joint California Policy Working Group on AI Frontier Models. In the wake of Newsom’s veto of SB 1047, the controversial AI regulatory bill, the governor created the committee of experts to come up with a better plan for AI safeguards.

This week the committee released its initial draft report. Upon an initial read the committee’s work looks surprisingly promising.

We have the full draft report available below:

not bad, all things considered

At TCAI, our early read includes these highlights:

• The report persuasively makes the case for the importance of acting now on AI regulation, rather than wait for problems to emerge.

• The task force emphrasizes the importance of transparency as a core foundational element for effective AI policy.

• The report strongly recommends a role for third party verification of self-assessments to strengthen confidence in the safety and reliability of AI.

• The report includes a recommendation to enact legislation that protects whistleblowers in the tech/AI space. This is a critically important part of any enforcement mechanism.

• The task force recommends requiring the reporting of adverse AI events.

There are several bills in the current session of the California legislature that address the concerns and recommendations in the report. Those include:

Comments due by april 8

Public comments on the draft task force report are due by April 9. Submit feedback here.

TCAI will follow up with a more complete analysis of the report in the coming days.