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Nathan Calvin on California’s AI bill SB 1047 and its potential to shape US AI policy | 80,000 Hours
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Recorded during the active legislative debate around SB 1047 (which was ultimately vetoed by Governor Newsom in 2024), this episode is a useful reference for understanding early US state-level AI safety regulation efforts and the arguments for and against compute-threshold-based AI governance frameworks.
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Summary
An 80,000 Hours podcast episode featuring Nathan Calvin discussing California's SB 1047 AI safety bill, which would impose safety requirements on large AI model developers. The conversation covers the bill's provisions, the debate around its merits and risks, and its potential implications for broader US AI governance and policy.
Key Points
- •SB 1047 targeted large AI models (above a compute threshold) and would require developers to implement safety protocols and conduct risk assessments before deployment.
- •The bill generated significant controversy within the AI community, with supporters arguing it establishes important safety precedents and critics warning of stifling innovation.
- •California's legislative actions carry outsized national influence given it hosts most major AI labs, making SB 1047 a potential template for federal AI regulation.
- •The episode explores the challenge of regulating frontier AI models when harms are difficult to define and anticipate in advance.
- •Nathan Calvin provides an insider perspective on the lobbying, stakeholder dynamics, and political feasibility of AI safety legislation.
Cited by 1 page
| Page | Type | Quality |
|---|---|---|
| Safe and Secure Innovation for Frontier Artificial Intelligence Models Act | Policy | 66.0 |
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On this page:
Introduction
1 Highlights
2 Articles, books, and other media discussed in the show
3 Transcript 3.1 Cold open [00:00:00]
3.2 Luisa's intro [00:00:57]
3.3 The interview begins [00:02:23]
3.4 What risks from AI does SB 1047 try to address? [00:03:10]
3.5 Supporters and critics of the bill [00:11:03]
3.6 Misunderstandings about the bill [00:24:07]
3.7 Competition, open source, and liability concerns [00:30:56]
3.8 Model size thresholds [00:46:24]
3.9 How is SB 1047 different from the executive order? [00:55:36]
3.10 Objections Nathan is sympathetic to [00:58:31]
3.11 Current status of the bill [01:02:57]
3.12 How can listeners get involved in work like this? [01:05:00]
3.13 Luisa's outro [01:11:52]
4 Learn more
5 Related episodes
Read transcript See all episodes
I do think that there is a really significant sentiment among parts of the opposition that it’s not really just that this bill itself is that bad or extreme — when you really drill into it, it feels like one of those things where you read it and it’s like, “This is the thing that everyone is screaming about?” I think it’s a pretty modest bill in a lot of ways, but I think part of what they are thinking is that this is the first step to shutting down AI development. Or that if California does this, then lots of other states are going to do it, and we need to really slam the door shut on model-level regulation or else they’re just going to keep going.
I think that is like a lot of what the sentiment here is: it’s less about, in some ways, the details of this specific bill, and more about the sense that they want this to stop here, and they’re worried that if they give an inch that there will continue to be other things in the future. And I don’t think that is going to be tolerable to the public in the long run. I think it’s a bad choice, but I think that is the calculus that they are making.
— Nathan Calvin
In today’s episode, host Luisa Rodriguez speaks to Nathan Calvin — senior policy counsel at the Center for AI Safety Action Fund — about the new AI safety bill in California, SB 1047, which he’s helped shape as it’s moved through the state legislature.
They cover:
What’s actually in SB 1047, and which AI models it would apply to.
The most common objections to the bill — including how it could affect competition, startups, open source models, and US national security — and which of these objections Nathan thinks hold water.
What Nathan sees as the biggest misunderstandings about the bill that get in the way of good public discourse about it.
Why some AI companies are opposed to SB 1047, despite c
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