Transparency Coalition, SAG-AFTRA, others urge Gov. Newsom to sign AB 2013

It's signing season in California: Gov. Gavin Newsom is shown earlier this week signing a recently passed bill to repair water services. A coalition of stakeholders affected by AI is urging the governor to sign the Artificial Intelligence Training Data Transparency Act into law.

Sept. 25, 2024 — A coalition of concerned organizations yesterday released a letter to California Gov. Gavin Newsom urging him to sign the Artificial Intelligence Training Data Transparency Act (AB 2013) into law.

The Act, which was approved by the state legislature in late August, represents one of the first serious efforts to enact safeguards around the data used to train AI models.

The Transparency Coalition joined SAG-AFTRA, the Authors Guild, the Dataset Providers Alliance, the National Music Publishers Association, and IGGY Ventures in advocating for the enactment of the law.

Balancing innovation while protecting privacy

“For AI to serve as a tool for progress rather than a source of risk,” the coalition wrote, “it is essential that its development and deployment are governed by clear, transparent, and responsible practices. AB 2013 takes an important step in this direction by requiring developers of generative AI systems to disclose key information about the datasets used to train their AI models.”

“In addition to promoting transparency, AB 2013 balances the need for innovation with the protection of individual privacy rights. It provides clear guidance on how AI developers should document and disclose their use of training data, while recognizing the importance of allowing certain exceptions for systems developed for national security, defense, and security-related purposes.”

The full letter is available below.

building consumer confidence in ethical AI

“Consumer confidence in AI systems has not grown at the same rapid pace as industry adoption,” Assemblymember Jacqui Irwin, the bill’s author, noted earlier this year. “Many consumers have valid questions about how these AI systems and services are created, and if they truly are better than what they seek to replace.”

 “To build consumer confidence,” she added, “we need to start with the foundations, and for AI that is the selection of training data. AB 2013 provides transparency to consumers of AI systems and services by providing important documentation about the data used to train the services and systems they are being offered, including if synthetic data has or is being used to fill gaps in data sources.”

Key component: High-level summaries of datasets

AB 2013 requires an AI model developer to post a high-level summary of the datasets used in the development of the AI system. That would include the sources or owners of the datasets, the number of data points in the datasets, whether the datasets were purchased or licensed by the developer, and whether the datasets include personal information. Further details and requirements can be found in the final bill.

The new requirements would take effect on Jan. 1, 2026, giving AI developers nearly 18 months to prepare for the transparency disclosures.