United States of America: Vetoed Safe and Secure Innovation for Frontier Artificial Intelligence Models Act (SB 1047) including the establishment of Frontier Model Division under the Department of Technology

On 29 September 2024, the Safe and Secure Innovation for Frontier Artificial Intelligence (AI) Models Act (SB 1047) was vetoed by the Governor of California. The Act would require the establishment of a Frontier Model Division under the Department of Technology. The Division would be responsible for reviewing annual certification reports from developers and publicly releasing summarised findings based on those reports. Additionally, the Division would be required to commission consultants to create a public cloud computing cluster called CalCompute. The primary focus of CalCompute would be to conduct research into the safe and secure deployment of large-scale artificial intelligence models and support equitable innovation. According to the Governor the Act focuses too narrowly on large AI models based on computational costs, creating a false sense of security. He emphasised that smaller models may pose significant risks and that the bill fails to address actual risks in high-stakes environments. The Governor's veto can be overridden by a two-third vote in both chambers of the legislature.