(TNS) — More than 125 Hollywood actors, directors, producers, musical artists and entertainment industry leaders signed a letter released Tuesday urging Gov. Gavin Newsom to sign a bill requiring developers of advanced artificial intelligence models to implement safeguards to prevent catastrophic events.
The bill, introduced by San Francisco Democratic Senator Scott Wiener and passed by the California Assembly, would require developers to share their safety plans with the state’s attorney general, who could hold them accountable if AI models over which they have direct control pose a harm or imminent threat to public safety.
Developers should also have a way to shut down such AI models if something goes wrong.
“Serious threats from AI were once the stuff of science fiction, but no longer,” the letter to Newsom said. “While billionaire opponents of SB 1047 dismiss these concerns as fanciful, many leading engineers, academics, and policymakers warn otherwise.”
Signatories to the letter include Lost co-creator JJ Abrams, Bridgerton executive producer Shonda Rhimes, The 40-Year-Old Virgin director Judd Apatow, When They See Us creator Ava DuVernay, actors Mark Hamill, Jane Fonda, Mahershala Ali, Ramy Yousef, Alec Baldwin, Pedro Pascal, Connie Britton, Mark Ruffalo, Sean Astin, Debra Messing, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and lyricist Diane Warren. SAG-AFTRA leaders, including President Fran Drescher and National Executive Director and Chief Negotiator Duncan Crabtree Ireland, also signed the letter.
The bill has been hotly debated in California and is opposed by tech companies including Facebook parent company Meta and ChatGPT developer OpenAI, as well as the tech trade group the Chamber of Progress, which released an AI-generated rock song about the bill with the lyrics “reject the chains that bind us.”
Democratic congressional leaders, including former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Reps. Ro Khan (D-Fremont) and Zoe Lofgren (D-San Jose), have also urged Newsom to veto the bill, arguing it could stifle innovation and pointing to work Congress is doing on AI.
SB 1047 is supported by the Center for AI Safety, prominent AI researchers and Tesla CEO Elon Musk. More than 100 current and former employees of AI-related companies, including OpenAI, Google DeepMind and Meta, signed a letter in support of SB 1047. Supporters of the bill argue that Congress has generally been slow to regulate technology, and that California should take the lead.
“In Silicon Valley we like to say, ‘move fast and break things,'” Gordon-Levitt said in a statement. “But with technology this powerful, maybe we should say, ‘move as fast as you can, while being careful not to break anything.'”
Newsom told The Times last week that he hadn’t yet made a decision on SB 1047.
“This is one of those bills that rarely makes it to your desk, and it depends on who is more persuasive on that last call,” Newsom said. “A lot of people are divided on it.”
The California Legislature has been considering a series of AI-related bills as local leaders seek to address and regulate public concerns about the rapidly evolving technology, with many in Hollywood expressing concern about the impact AI will have on jobs.
Last year, the Screen Actors Guild, the National Association of Television and Radio Entertainers, and the Writers Guild of America staged a walkout over concerns about how studios are using AI, and last week Governor Newsom signed an AI bill that will strengthen protections for actors’ digital image rights and combat the spread of deepfakes in political advertising.
In the letter, Hollywood talent expressed gratitude to Governor Newsom for signing the bill to protect artists’ rights from unethical use of AI and urged him to sign it, saying SB 1047 is a bill aimed at “protecting everyone.”
“Rather than waiting until damage is done before taking any action, it is prudent to approach new technologies with minimal oversight and basic guardrails,” Ruffalo said in a statement.
Many of the signatories to the letter are California residents and vocal Democrats, including Ruffalo, who supported Newsom in the recall effort.
“We voted for you,” the letter said, “because we continue to believe you are a leader who will stand up for the well-being of all people, not just one big Silicon Valley company.”
©2024 Los Angeles Times. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
