Openai: Ai Policy Will Still Be Made In The States

SACRAMENTO, California — A senior OpenAI global affairs chief said AI policy is still anchored in the states, and continues to be informed by a landmark law that California passed last year.

With thousands of bills moving through state legislatures, “the framework for how AI policy is going to be made in America is really happening in state capitals, through either executive orders or the state legislation,” said Ann O'Leary, OpenAI’s vice president of global policy.

Much of that, she said, was informed by California’s AI transparency law signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom last year.

The next set of policy conversations around catastrophic risks posed by AI, kids’ safety and data centers were already happening, she said, adding “I think that there's real room for California to keep leading on these issues.”

The conversation took place at POLITICO's The California Agenda: Sacramento Summit during a panel which also featured state Sen. Steve Padilla and Bruce Reed, Head of AI for kids’ online safety nonprofit Common Sense, a former Biden White House official.

“California has been the leader on tech regulation for over a decade,” Reed said, pointing out that Washington has not passed a major tech law in decades and has failed to keep up with a fast moving industry.

“You can’t pass a law once every 30 years to deal with a technology that changes once every 30 days,” Reed said, adding it fell to states like California to move on the issue.

Padilla, who has gotten chatbot safety protections passed into law and is working on the issue again this year, said the effects of AI technology surpassed previous historical disruptions like the Industrial Revolution.

“I think it's because of that reality and a lack of consolidated, coordinated action coming from the federal government for a variety of dysfunctional reasons that you see state legislators beginning to feel a sense of urgency,” Padilla said. “And certainly, in California, we recognize that urgency, but … we also are determined to act.”