California Legislators Are Not Equipped to Rework Their AI Law

Responding to an editorial in the Financial Times about Governor Gavin Newsom's veto of California's artificial intelligence safety bill (SB 1047), Hodan Omaar writes that the FT board is correct that getting AI regulation right is worth the effort. But the FT board's suggestion that lawmakers should simply "rework and clarify vague rules" does not address a fundamental issue: Legislators currently lack the necessary information about how harms from AI systems may materialize and evolve in the real world to design truly effective regulations. No amount of rule tweaking-whether adjusting metrics, adding safeguards or redefining terms-will resolve this problem.

Read the letter.