Elon Musk comes out in support of California AI legislation

Billionaire tech mogul Elon Musk on Monday came out in support of a California bill meant to establish safety measures for powerful artificial intelligence (AI) models, legislation that has divided large technology companies, startups and researchers. 

“This is a tough call and will make some people upset, but, all things considered, I think California should probably pass the SB 1047 AI safety bill,” Musk said in a post on his platform X.

“For over 20 years, I have been an advocate for AI regulation, just as we regulate any product/technology that is a potential risk to the public,” the Tesla and SpaceX CEO, who also owns an AI company called xAI, added. 

California Senate Bill 1047 would require large-scale AI models to perform safety testing before being released to the public and would hold developers liable for severe harm caused by their models.   

The legislation is opposed by several major tech firms, including Meta and Google, as well as AI companies, such as OpenAI, who argue it would stifle innovation in the Golden State. 

These concerns have been echoed by former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), as well as several other California Democrats, who sent a letter to Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) earlier this month urging him to veto the legislation if it reaches his desk. 

However, SB 1047 has been endorsed by prominent AI researchers Yoshua Bengio and Geoffrey Hinton. Following recent amendments, AI startup Anthropic also said last week that the legislation was substantially improved “to the point where we believe its benefits likely outweigh its costs.”