Seventeen minutes into his final State of the State address on Jan. 8, Gov. Gavin Newsom declared California’s newly enacted artificial intelligence safety law “a template for the nation.” He boasted that New York “adopted our approach” in regulating the Silicon Valley companies that are releasing increasingly powerful chatbots.
Category: Artificial Intelligence
Posted inArtificial Intelligence, Economy & Business, Technology
California’s New AI Safety Law Created the Illusion of Whistleblower Protections
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.
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 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.