Privacy agency oversteps authority, jeopardizes California’s opportunity to lead in AI – Orange County Register

Throughout history, there has been reluctance by some to embrace change and technological innovation. This resistance to innovation isn’t new, 19th-century textile workers protested mechanization of their factories, communities opposed the introduction of the automobile in the early 1900s, and in the last 20 years there has been an organized opposition to alternative energy. But technological innovation brings measurable, scaled economic and social benefit, and improved standards of living.

Today, California is home to 32 of the world’s 50 leading AI companies which are at the forefront of one of the most significant technological advances in centuries. These companies’ AI technologies are powering significant advances in medicine, disaster prevention, zero emission technology, and resource sustainability. California stands to gain significant economic benefit and critical societal benefits if we welcome and nurture the societal transition, rather than trying to stop it in its tracks.

Unfortunately, the California Privacy Protection Agency (CPPA) is putting these benefits at risk by seeking to impose regulations on artificial intelligence (AI) and Automated Decision Making Technology (ADMT). If successful, the CPPA regulations would disadvantage California’s innovation economy and the massive benefits which consumers receive, especially as global competitors like China rapidly advance.

On November 8, the CPPA voted to advance regulations to restrict AI/ADMT by mandating complicated risk assessments and establishing far-reaching rules for pre-notice, opt-out, and other requirements. Early restrictions without a long-range, comprehensive, thoughtful look at potential positive impacts will only discourage innovation.

The CPPA, a five-person, state board whose primary responsibility is the enforcement of California privacy regulations, is overstepping its role by going beyond the laws passed by the California legislature and voted on by California’s millions of residents and attempting to shape policy on AI/ADMT. The California legislature passed, and Governor Newsom signed, 18 artificial intelligence bills that haven’t even gone into effect yet. They also rejected countless other AI proposals, some of which raised similar concerns as the proposed CPPA regulations.

Governor Newsom has already made his preference known on the development of guardrails for AI/ADMT. “Safety protocols must be adopted. Proactive guardrails should be implemented, and severe consequences for bad actors must be clear and enforceable. I do not agree, however, that to keep the public safe, we must settle for a solution that is not informed by an empirical trajectory analysis of Al systems and capabilities.”

Californians need their elected leaders to ensure that any new AI/ADMT regulations do not impose prohibitive costs to developers or slow innovation so significantly that California companies are at a competitive disadvantage. The cost of “acting now but getting it wrong” may well have a major impact on California and the nation. Governor Newsom noted, “We lead in this space because of our research and education institutions, our diverse and motivated workforce, and our free-spirited cultivation of intellectual freedom.”

Don’t just take my word for it. CPPA Boardmember MacTaggart, at the November 8th hearing said the following “I think we should focus on our privacy mandate. What we’re basically doing is we’re taking ten lines from a 60-page bill and we’re trying to backwards regulate AI. I think it’s an incredibly important area to have some regulations, but that’s what the legislature’s doing right now, and that’s what the governor’s talking about.”