Elon Musk Advocates for Controversial AI Bill, Counters OpenAI & Google

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has recently voiced support for a California AI Safety Bill, garnering attention across the wider industry. The Bill, SB 1047, comes as a one-of-a-kind mover scoping in on artificial intelligence development. Meanwhile, other industries’ prominence continues to tear into this AI bill, with OpenAI, a vital industry player, even eyeing support for another bill.

Elon Musk Supports SB 1047 California AI Bill

In a post shared on X on August 27, the American entrepreneur stated, “This is a tough call and will make some people upset, but, all things considered, I think California should probably pass the SB 1047 AI safety bill.” This statement by Elon Musk, as AI giants continue to rip apart the mentioned bill, has gained significant traction across the industry.

The SB 1037 Bill mandates AI devs spending more than $100 million in curating a model to conduct ‘safety testing.’ Should the firms violate the Bill and cause damages exceeding $500 million, the attorney general remains liable to take action against the developer.

However, the Bill garnered severe criticism from industry giants such as OpenAI and Google. Recently, OpenAI Chief Strategy Officer Jason Kwon hinted that the California AI bill could hinder the growth and progress of key industries. Simultaneously, Sam Altman’s OpenAI appears to be pushing for another AI bill, contrary to Elon Musk’s support of SB 1047.

OpenAI Supports AB 3211 AI Bill

Conversely, the ChatGPT maker appears to be supporting the AB 3211 AI Bill that requires the ‘watermarking’ of AI, aka synthetic content. This new Bill mandates tech companies to label AI-generated content, spanning from harmless memes to deepfakes aimed at spreading misinformation about political candidates.

Nevertheless, the AB 3211 currently remains dwarfed due to the SB 1047. Meanwhile, industry-wide speculation remains whether the California AI ‘Safety Bill’ will be used to crack down on open-weights, i.e., firms offering public access to their trained models.

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin further replied to Elon Musk’s post on X today, revealing that recent Bill-wise developments illustrate efforts to engulf open-weights under its umbrella. However, he also added that the “charitable read of the bill is that the (medium-term) goal is to mandate safety testing.”

Meanwhile, in another riveting turn of events, the Tesla & SpaceX CEO’s social media platform X has garnered global attention. Following Telegram founder Pavel Durov’s arrest, Elon Musk agreed that X might be next to censorship scrutiny.