AI bills stacking up in California |
Image © Illustration / Samantha Wong; and Adobe Stock |
The most consequential technology bills of the year are piled on California Gov. Gavin Newsom's (D) desk, and the tech industry is ramping up pressure on Newsom to veto many of those measures. Lobbying groups are flooding Newsom's office with letters in opposition to Senate Bill 1047, the measure that would require safety testing and shutdown capabilities for the most powerful artificial intelligence (AI) models. Newsom has also heard from Democratic allies, including former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D), who want him to nix the bill. State filings show some of the largest tech companies in the world spent more than $5 million lobbying against SB 1047, making it one of, if not the most expensive influence campaign of the year. Newsom has expressed wariness about over-regulating an industry that would mean billions for his state, but he hasn't said anything explicit about the bill on his desk. We've said before that AI bills will flood next year's legislative sessions. How Newsom acts now will set the table for 2025. |
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Welcome to Tech Friday, a joint project of The Hill and Pluribus News covering tech policy across government. |
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White House meets with AI leaders |
OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman and representatives from Google and Anthropic met with senior Biden administration officials to discuss development of data centers to fuel AI systems. The meeting is intended to boost collaboration between public and private sectors. Read more at The Hill. |
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FDA approves AirPod hearing aid capability |
The Food and Drug Administration will allow Apple to sell AirPod Pros as over-the-counter hearing aids. New AirPods coming with a hearing aid feature through a software-only mobile app. Read more at The Hill. |
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Parents call for House action on online safety bill |
Parents of children who have died or been seriously harmed by social media pushed the House on Thursday to begin moving the Kids Online Safety Act. The bill passed the Senate in a 91-3 vote in late July but has stalled in the House. Read more at The Hill. |
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Tech giants lose EU court fights |
Apple and Google have lost appeals to the European Union's highest court in two cases that will require the tech giants to pay billions in fines. The EU court upheld a 2016 finding that Ireland improperly granted Apple tax breaks, and a $2.6 billion antitrust finding against Google. Read more at The Hill. |
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Amazon adds AI prediction to NFL games |
Amazon is incorporating a Tackle Probability model in its Thursday Night Football broadcasts this year, the company said. The technology is meant to highlight the best defenders and the slipperiest ball carriers in the league. Read more at The Hill. |
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Waymo, Uber expand robotaxis |
Way and Uber will expand their two-year robotaxi partnership to Austin, Texas, and Atlanta beginning early next year. The companies have been working together on robotaxis in Phoenix since last year. Read more at The Verge. |
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Magnificent Seven performance this week |
AAPL +0.7%, GOOG +3.2%, MSFT +4.9%, TSLA +5.3%, AMZN +7.4%, NVDA +12.7%, META +3.2%. NASDAQ-100 Tech Sector index: +4%. |
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A bipartisan group of 42 state attorneys general have asked Congressional leadership to require social media sites to carry a warning label from the U.S. Surgeon General. The attorneys general want to highlight a mental health crisis among youth fueled in part by social media. Read more at Pluribus News. |
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A federal judge has blocked Utah from enforcing a new law that would require social media companies to verify users' ages, and to apply strict privacy settings for minors. The judge said the plaintiff, industry group NetChoice, was likely to succeed in its claims that the law violates the First Amendment. Read more at The Hill. |
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Americans lost more than $5.6 billion in fraud schemes involving cryptocurrency in 2023, the Federal Bureau of Investigation said in a report out this week. The bureau received more than 69,000 complaints about financial fraud involving crypto last year alone. Read more at The Hill. |
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Sept. 17: The Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology and the Law holds a hearing on oversight of AI systems. |
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Sept. 18: The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee holds a business meeting to consider S. 4495, enabling safe and responsible procurement and development of AI by the federal government. |
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A new study finds AI chatbots may be able to reduce someone's belief in conspiracy theories. The paper found that chatbots with access to broad ranges of information could tailor counterarguments to individuals who buy into conspiracy theories. Read more at Ars Technica. |
A hacker using ChatGPT was able to trick the bot into creating a recipe for a bomb by asking it to imagine a science-fiction fantasy world where its safety guidelines would not apply. "There really is no limit to what you can ask [ChatGPT] once you get around the guardrails," the hacker told TechCrunch. |
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You're all caught up! See you next week. |
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