Artificial Intelligence (AI) is, understandably, one of the more controversial technological innovations of recent years. The technology has the potential to unlock grand scientific breakthroughs or lead to economic and environmental catastrophe. While President Donald Trump has taken a fairly hands-off approach to AI, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed an executive order on Monday creating regulations for AI companies operating in the state.
According to CBS News, the executive order establishes guardrails to address growing safety and privacy concerns surrounding AI. “California’s always been the birthplace of innovation. But we also understand the flip side: in the wrong hands, innovation can be misused in ways that put people at risk. California leads in AI, and we’re going to use every tool we have to ensure companies protect people’s rights, not exploit them or put them in harm’s way. While others in Washington are designing policy and creating contracts in the shadow of misuse, we’re focused on doing this the right way,” Newsom said in a statement.
Newsom specifically called out the Trump administration’s efforts to block the regulation of AI. Earlier this month, President Donald Trump presented Congress with a policy framework designed to punish states that implement regulations on AI companies. “While others in Washington are designing policy and creating contracts in the shadow of misuse, we’re focused on doing this the right way.”
What’s truly baffling about the Trump administration’s hands-off approach is that we’ve seen what happens when you let tech companies do as they please with little to no consequence. Social media started as a silly virtual space for keeping up with your friends and has evolved into an effective propaganda tool that has stoked division on a global scale.
AI is a much more dangerous tool than social media, especially given that people like OpenAI CEO Sam Altman have openly discussed AI potentially becoming a superintelligence that surpasses human intelligence. Beyond the security concerns presented by that concept, there’s also the possibility that if AI eventually becomes sophisticated enough, it could lead to mass unemployment as more companies choose to adopt it over paying workers.
The New York Times reports that one of the key regulations in the order regards increased vetting of AI companies seeking government contracts. The executive order would require AI companies to disclose what safeguards they have in place to prevent their technology from being used to exploit individuals and generate content that contains child sexual abuse. That last bit is a very real concern, as three teenagers in Tennessee have filed a lawsuit against Elon Musk’s xAI after an unnamed AI app built on the company’s algorithm was used to generate nonconsensual, sexually explicit images of them.
The executive order also allows California to set its own contracting standards, separate from those of the federal government. If the federal government labels an AI company a supply chain risk, as the Pentagon recently did with Anthropic after the company refused to allow its technology to be used for mass surveillance, California can conduct its own separate review. If the state determines the company isn’t a risk, it will continue to contract with them.
One of the more significant regulations in the executive order requires state officials to begin watermarking content created with generative AI to prevent the spread of disinformation. The watermark will also allow the public to see the difference between content the state creates with real people and that created by generative AI.
While I’m generally anti-AI, as I don’t think the potential benefits outweigh the very real costs it may have on our workforce and environment, I’m also a realist who understands the genie isn’t going back in the bottle. If AI is here to stay, I’m glad that at least some states are actively working to responsibly implement it.
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