California lawmakers pretend to regulate AI, create a pile of paperwork

A year after vetoing a tougher bill, California Gov Gavin Newsom has signed the nation's first AI transparency law, forcing big model developers to publish frameworks and file incident reports, but critics argue it's more paperwork than protection.

Newsom signed California Senate Bill 53, the Transparency in Frontier Artificial Intelligence Act, into law on Monday. The law largely does what it says on the tin, placing a number of transparency requirements on the frontier developers. Large AI firms, defined by the bill as those with annual gross revenue in excess of $500 million, including affiliates, must publish and update frontier AI frameworks, include added disclosures in their transparency reports, report critical safety incidents to the state Office of Emergency Services, and not retaliate against whistleblowers, among other requirements.

Safety incidents, per the law, include unauthorized access or compromise of a model "that results in death or bodily injury ...