California Governor Gavin Newsom signed the Transparency in Frontier Artificial Intelligence Act, otherwise known as SB53, into law Monday afternoon. <\/p>\n
The bill is the first of its kind in the United States, placing new AI-specific regulations on the top players in the industry, requiring these companies to fulfill transparency requirements and report AI-related safety incidents. <\/p>\n
Though several states<\/a> have recently passed laws regulating aspects of AI, SB 53 is the first to explicitly focus on the safety of cutting-edge and powerful AI models.<\/p>\n In a statement, Newsom said that \u201cCalifornia has proven that we can establish regulations to protect our communities while also ensuring that the growing AI industry continues to thrive. This legislation strikes that balance.\u201d<\/p>\n The law requires leading AI companies to publish public documents detailing how they are following best practices to create safe AI systems. The law creates a new pathway for companies to report severe AI-related incidents to California\u2019s Office of Emergency Services, while also strengthening protections for whistleblowers who raise concerns about health and safety risks. <\/p>\n The law is backed by civil penalties for non-compliance, to be enforced by the California Attorney General\u2019s office.<\/p>\n While SB 53 attracted intense criticism from industry groups like the Chamber of Progress<\/a> and the Consumer Technology Association<\/a>, leading AI company Anthropic endorsed the bill<\/a> while others like Meta said it was<\/a> a \u201cstep in the right direction.\u201d <\/p>\n While these companies expressed their support for the bill, they made clear that their preference was for federal legislation to avoid a patchwork of state-by-state laws. <\/p>\n