California’s first-in-the-nation AI safety law includes whistleblower protections, but late concessions narrowed them sharply, limiting coverage to select safety staff and requiring serious harm or extreme risk before employees are protected, leaving many potential insiders vulnerable to retaliation.
Author Archives: Jason Winshell
Jason Winshell is a photojournalist and investigative reporter. The current focus of his reporting is AI and technology policy. His prior four-decade career as software engineer informs his reporting. In 2010, his photography was nominated by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art’s SECA award, which recognizes the work of emerging artists in the Bay Area. His photo essay book, "Street," documents every day life in San Francisco through 45 color photographs shot on the city’s streets.
Posted inPolitics
Joy as a Political Act Defines ‘No Kings’ Protest
More than 50,000 people marched in San Francisco Saturday for the second national “No Kings” protest, making it one of the largest in recent years to focus collective scorn on the Trump Administration. The scene blended activism and spectacle.
Posted inArtificial Intelligence, California, Technology
California’s AI Safety Law Beats New York’s to Finish Line, but Trades Away Safety and Liability Provisions
With the signature of Gov. Gavin Newsom Monday, California approved “first-in-the-nation” legislation aimed at limiting risk of accidents, cybercrimes and other catastrophic outcomes of artificial intelligence. But a parallel effort pending approval in New York may have better withstood the tech lobbying blitz.
Posted inArtificial Intelligence, California, Economy & Business, Government & Politics, Technology
California Pushes AI Regulation as Experts Reveal Looming Dangers
Bay Area technology companies are racing to build powerful artificial intelligence systems they admit could pose “catastrophic risks” to society. But a new report by academic experts commissioned by Gov. Gavin Newsom finds they are resisting transparency and oversight in dangerous ways. The big AI companies prefer that society trust them to innovate responsibly, and […]
Posted inArtificial Intelligence, Economy & Business, Labor, News, Technology, Transportation
Drivers Protest Uber’s ‘Black Box’ Fare System
Uber’s use of secretive fare pricing algorithms driven by artificial intelligence lowers drivers’ wages, causes them confusion and uncertainty, and could undermine public safety — all while boosting company profits to record levels.
That’s the conclusion of a new report surveying more than 2,500 Uber drivers and the message sounded by dozens who protested July 1 outside the company’s San Francisco headquarters.
Drivers say the company’s opaque fare-pricing algorithms have been hurting their income and wellbeing. The protesters’ signs echoed conclusions from the report by PowerSwitch Action and Gig Workers Rising, grassroots organizations representing workers and labor interests.
Posted inBay Area, Government & Politics, Immigration, Social Justice
Tens of Thousands Gather for No Kings Day of Defiance in San Francisco
Tens of thousands of demonstrators marched through San Francisco Saturday from Dolores Park to Civic Center Plaza for a No Kings protest organized to oppose the Trump administration’s increasingly aggressive immigration enforcement actions and crackdowns on protesters under the guise of restoring law and order.
Posted inGovernment & Politics, Labor, Social Justice
May Day Rallies in SF Draw Thousands to Protest Trump Administration Policies
Thousands of people turned out for a protest rally at San Francisco’s Civic Center Plaza and other locations on May 1 — also known as May Day and International Workers’ Day — to express outrage against Trump administration policies targeting immigrants, federal workers, labor unions, the social safety net, environmental policy, education and free speech.
The rallies on Thursday in San Francisco were among more than 1,000 demonstrations staged nationwide that coordinated with the grassroots 50501 movement, which billed the protests as a fight against a “billionaire takeover.”
Posted inArtificial Intelligence, Government & Politics, Health, Technology
Opposite of Efficiency
A team of 20 people from the U.S. Digital Service had been providing project oversight and design expertise to modernize the CDC’s National Electronic Disease Surveillance System Base System to ensure it would flexibly meet the diverse needs of public health departments nationwide.
When DOGE laid off 19 of those federal employees. it stripped away the expertise and accountability needed to ensure the project would be successfully completed by federal software contractors — in effect promoting government waste and inefficiency instead of reducing or eliminating it.
Posted inCommunity, Government & Politics
Tesla Becomes Lightning Rod for Political Protests
Hundreds of people descended on San Francisco’s Tesla dealership Monday to peacefully protest recent actions by President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk to downsize the federal workforce under the auspices of the Department of Government Efficiency, Musk’s extra-governmental organization, aka DOGE.
Protesters expressed outrage on Presidents’ Day over recent mass layoffs of federal workers and Musk’s ongoing efforts to gain access to sensitive taxpayer data. They carried homemade signs bearing slogans such as “government for people not billionaires,” “no one voted for Elon Musk,” “resist the oligarchy,” “I lost my job serving your public lands,” “defund Musk,” “no kings, no tyranny,” and “boycott Tesla.”
Posted inEducation, News, Public Schools
Infographics: School Fundraising in S.F. by the Numbers
The San Francisco Unified School District aims to spend its funds equitably, not necessarily equally. That means giving more to schools with the highest needs, based on a complex formula. But in the past decade, parents at some schools have developed sophisticated fundraising operations to make up for years of tight districtwide budgets. The result: parents at a few schools are able to significantly supplement their children’s education, while most are not.
Part of a special report on education inequality in San Francisco. A version of this story ran in the winter 2014 print edition.