Anthropic says California AI bill’s benefits likely outweigh costs

The benefits of California’s revised bill that seeks to regulate how artificial intelligence is developed and deployed in the state likely outweigh the costs, Anthropic said on Thursday.

San Francisco-based Anthropic is a rival to ChatGPT-maker OpenAI and is backed by Amazon and Alphabet.

California’s proposed bill on AI regulation, SB 1047, advanced by State Senator Scott Wiener, a Democrat, mandates safety testing for many of the most advanced AI models that cost more than $100 million to develop or those that require a defined amount of computing power.

Developers of AI software operating in the state would need to outline methods for turning off the AI models if they go awry, effectively a kill switch. The bill would also give the state attorney general the power to sue if developers are not compliant.