California Governor Gavin Newsom jumped into the artificial intelligence conversation during an appearance at Dreamforce on Tuesday where he signed three AI-related bills into law.
Newsom pulled three bundles of paper out of his suit coat in the middle of a one-on-one conversation onstage with Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff and then signed the bills: AB 2655, AB 2839 and AB 2355.
The trio of laws will regulate deepfakes and election-related content.
One will require the removal or labeling of deceptive or altered digital content during election periods, as well the disclosure of such content.
Another prohibits deceptive or manipulated content about elected officials, candidates and elections officials, in addition to giving political committees and others more time to take down deceptive and manipulated content.
The third law requires disclosures on electoral advertising that has AI-generated or altered content.
"There's not a lot of disclosures, not a lot of labeling," Gov. Newsom said during Dreamforce as he recounted some of the fake and AI-generated images that have been promoted by Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. "It was just wrong on every level. Malicious intent behind these deep fakes impacting elections … I do have those three bills that I could sign today with you, or not."
He then proceeded to sign all three bills.
State lawmakers killed two AI bills earlier this month: AB 3211 would have required content created with generative AI software to contain a watermark and AB 2930 would have placed limits on bias in automated decision tools, or ADTs.
But the governor has around three dozen other AI-related bills waiting for his consideration, he said. Among them is SB 1047, state Sen. Scott Weiner's controversial proposal to regulate companies like OpenAI that are developing large AI models.
"I got 991 bills on my desk and 38 of them are in this (artificial intelligence) space, and some of those decisions will be profoundly impactful on the future of this industry," Gov. Newsom said.
The governor didn't say whether he intends to sign SB 1047 but dropped a few hints pointing to concerns about the bill.
"There's one bill that is sort of outsized in terms of public discourse and consciousness. It's this SB 1047. There are dozens and dozens of other bills that are more surgical bills as it relates to AI deep fakes more than traditional issues," Gov. Newsom said, but SB 1047 has "created its own weather system."
He also pointed to a lack of national regulations that has created a vacuum in the space.
"We've been working over the course of the last couple years to come up with some rational regulation that supports risk taking but not recklessness. That supports the ecosystem that's a unique environment here in California, and doesn't put us at a competitive disadvantage, but at the same time, puts the rules of the road," Gov. Newsom said. "That's challenging now in this space, particularly with SB 1047."
