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🌈 Abstract

The article discusses SB1047, a bill in California that threatens the future of startups, open source, and AI research. It outlines the key issues with the bill, including the creation of a new regulatory agency, the Frontier Model Division, that would impose fees and compliance burdens on AI developers, the targeting of open source through the "derivative model" standard, and the potential harm to California's lead in AI research.

🙋 Q&A

[01] The definitive resource

1. What are the key concerns raised about SB1047?

• The bill will entrench incumbents over startups, target open source, devastate California's lead in AI, and cede rulemaking to unelected bureaucrats.
• The bill burdens developers with a mountain of compliance, preventing startups from competing with legacy companies.
• It creates a new regulatory agency, the Frontier Model Division, which will impose fees on AI developers and obstruct their research.
• The bill is designed to harm AI research itself, instead of focusing on malicious use, and targets open source using its "derivative model" standard.

2. What is the background of the bill's co-sponsor, the Center for AI Safety? The Center for AI Safety is an extremist organization that believes AI research is likely to lead to human extinction. The bill is seen as being influenced by this ideology.

[02] The threat to startups, open source, and AI research

1. How does the bill impact startups and open source?

• The bill places asymmetric burdens on open source, as the "derivative model" standard applies the same requirements and liabilities to developers whose models are used in combination with other software.
• The "covered models" standard, which includes models with a certain compute threshold, will likely affect more companies over time as model sizes increase, including startups.
• The regulations on "derivative models" mean that AI startups not working on training models independently will see the number of available models for them to modify greatly limited.

2. How does the bill impact AI research in California?

• The bill is designed to harm AI research itself, instead of focusing on malicious use.
• California's lead in AI research is attributed to its vibrant startup economy, which the bill threatens.
• The bill is seen as being influenced by an extreme ideology that believes AI research is likely to cause human extinction, which could lead to California becoming "captured" by this ideology.