California governor vetoes contentious AI safety bill, Reuters reports

California Governor Gavin Newsom on Sunday vetoed a hotly contested artificial intelligence safety bill after the tech industry raised objections, saying it could drive AI companies from the state and hinder innovation, Reuters’ David Shepardson and Anna Tong report. Newsom said the bill “does not take into account whether an AI system is deployed in high-risk environments, involves critical decision-making or the use of sensitive data” and would apply “stringent standards to even the most basic functions – so long as a large system deploys it.” The bill faced strong opposition from a wide range of groups. Alphabet’s (GOOGL) Google, Microsoft (MSFT)-backed OpenAI and Meta Platforms (META), all of which are developing generative AI models, had expressed their concerns about the proposal.