Call-to-Action on SB 1047 – Frontier Artificial Intelligence Models Act

California legislators, under the influence of Effective Altruism activists, are trying to sneak through a disastrous bill for open-source AI and the technology industry generally.

SB 1047 creates an unaccountable Frontier Model Division that will be staffed by EAs with police powers, and which can throw model developers in jail for the thoughtcrime of doing AI research. It’s being fast-tracked through the state Senate. Since many cloud and AI companies are headquartered in California, this will have worldwide impact.

We need your help to stop this now. It only takes a few minutes, and three steps, but you need to do them soon, ideally this week. Non-California residents are very welcome to comment, and indeed many of the supporters are not from California.

1. Submit a position letter to the bill author, which ensures that your position shows up on all future bill analyses that state Senators read. Go to https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240SB1047, click on “Comments to the Author”, register an account and submit an opposition letter.

Use your own words for the letter, and feel free to borrow liberally from or cite friend of AFTF Context Fund’s analysis of the bill (https://www.context.fund/policy/sb_1047_analysis.html). One of key arguments being advanced is that this is “pro-little guy”, so if you’re involved in the open source movement, are a startup founder, or an investor, heavily cite your experience and how the bill affects you personally.

If it’s still before May 5th, also submit comments to the Senate Appropriations Committee: https://sapro.senate.ca.gov/position-letters. Unfortunately, you have to submit to both the committee and the author to make sure the position letter is fully considered at the hearing.

2. Also add your public comment to the Context Fund analysis document (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1rk8uRTs0tiQ8O4k6ZVkwnOQX5n2PSdFhh0sXeXoDNM4/edit).

3. Tell your friends about this and introduce it to the media, publications you are connected to, and your own social media followings, especially those serving the ML, tech and startup audiences.

Most builders and investors who would be affected by this bill are not aware of it, but the special interests are. We need to change that quickly.

Thank you for your help!