California Cannot Be Fooled by Tech Industry’s Misguided Decisions on AI Safety Legislation

If you’ve seen headlines about proposed legislation in California to establish safety barriers around artificial intelligenceyou might think this is a debate between Big Tech and “slow” government.

You might think that this is a debate between those who would like to protect technological innovation and those who would like to restrict it.

You might also think of this as the debate that will decide whether AI development stays in California or leaves it.

These arguments couldn’t be more wrong.

Let me be clear: Senate Bill No. 1047 it’s about ensuring that the most powerful AI models—those with the potential to cause catastrophic harm—are developed responsibly. We’re talking about AI systems that could potentially create biological weapons, disrupt critical infrastructure, or engineer harm on a societal scale.

These aren’t science fiction scenarios. These are real possibilities that demand immediate attention.

In fact, the bill was supported by many of the scientists who invented the field decades ago, including Joshua Bengio AND Geoffrey Hintonthe so-called “godfathers of artificial intelligence”.

Critics, particularly in Silicon Valley, say any regulation would drive innovation out of California. That argument is not only misleading—it’s dangerous. The bill only applies to companies that spend hundreds of millions on the most advanced AI models. For most startups and researchers, that’s business as usual. They won’t feel any impact from the bill.

Fear mongering is nothing new. We’ve seen this type of resistance before. But this time, big tech companies like Google and Meta have already done it. made big promises about AI security internationallyNow, with legislation finally on their hands that would codify those verbal commitments, they are showing their cards by lobbying against common-sense safety requirements and screaming that startups are leaving the state.

These exaggerated threats ring hollow: the probability of huge success — especially for startups — is much better in Silicon Valley than anywhere else in the country.

Some of the fiercest opposition comes from the “effective accelerator” wing of Silicon Valley. These tech fanatics dream of a world in which AI can thrive without checks, regardless of the consequences. They cite concepts like sustainability, social responsibility, and ethics as enemies to be defeated. Feverishly the dream of a world where technology replaces peopleushering in “the next evolution of consciousness, creating unthinkable next-generation life forms and silicon-based consciousness.”

We’ve seen this kind of polarization before, albeit less intensely. Social media companies promised to connect the world, but their unregulated growth has led to mental health crises, interference in elections and erosion of privacy.

We can’t afford to repeat these mistakes with AI. The stakes are simply too high.

Californians understand this. Recent polling shows that 66% of voters don’t trust tech companies to prioritize AI security themselves. Nearly 9 in 10 say it’s important for California to develop AI security regulations, and 82% support the basic provisions in SB 1047.

The public overwhelmingly supports policies like SB 1047—these are just the loud voices of big tech companies trying to drown out the opinions of the majority of Californians.

As a young person, I often feel like I am wrongly perceived as anti-technology because I am Luddites of this century. I completely reject this. I am a digital native who sees the enormous potential of AI to solve global challenges. I am deeply optimistic about the future of technology. But I also understand the need for guardrails.

My generation is the one that will inherit a world shaped by today’s decisions. We deserve a voice in how this technology evolves.

For lawmakers and ultimately Gov. Gavin Newsom, the choice is not between innovation and safety. It’s between a future in which the benefits of AI are widely shared and one in which the harms fall disproportionately on the shoulders of vulnerable groups and young people like me.

SB 1047 is a step toward the former, a future in which California is a leader not only in technological innovation, but also in ethical innovation.

By Sunny Gandhi. This article was originally published by CalMatters Matters. Sunny Gandhi is Vice President, Policy at Encode Justice.

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