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SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California lawmakers return to work on Wednesday for the beginning of an election-year legislative session dominated by choices on synthetic intelligence and the state’s struggling funds.
The funds is an enormous concern yearly in California, which is the nation’s most populous state and has an economic system bigger than that of all however 4 international locations. However this yr, lawmakers and Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom must work out the way to cowl an estimated $68 billion deficit — a shortfall that’s bigger than the complete working budgets of many states.
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And with California corporations on the forefront of the bogus intelligence growth, a lot of state lawmakers are eyeing new guidelines to control using the know-how earlier than it could actually dominate every day life — very like social media has.
The California Legislature is scheduled to convene Wednesday afternoon, giving lawmakers per week to settle in earlier than Newsom sends over his first funds plan. Chopping the funds isn’t straightforward, nevertheless it’s particularly tough in an election yr when many legislators should then ask voters in November to reelect them.
Plus, lawmakers will probably be following a pair of recent leaders as they navigate their first funds negotiations, an arduous course of that occurs principally behind closed doorways and requires gaining consensus among the many Democrats who management a majority of seats within the Legislature. Meeting Speaker Robert Rivas took over final summer season, and incoming Senate President Professional Tempore Mike McGuire is scheduled to take over subsequent month.
They may also information debates on using generative synthetic intelligence instruments and makes an attempt to rein within the fast-growing {industry}.
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A number of lawmakers are making ready a bunch of payments to manage using generative synthetic intelligence instruments — payments aimed on the potential impacts on privateness, discrimination, job protections and misinformation throughout an election yr.
Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan has stated she is going to introduce a invoice to ban using AI programs that discriminate towards folks, which might have required corporations to guage the algorithms they develop and disclose any potential discriminatory dangers. She launched an analogous invoice final yr however couldn’t advance it.
Assemblymember Ash Kalra desires to guard actors and artists by limiting studios’ means to copy performers’ work utilizing AI, a sticking level in contract negotiations final yr between actors and studios. The invoice would permit performers to flee imprecise language in contracts that permit corporations to make use of AI to create a digital model of themselves.
State Sen. Scott Wiener stated he’ll attempt to set up a sweeping industry-wide security framework. The San Francisco Democrat goals to give attention to tackling a number of the greatest dangers in public security and safety, resembling AI-generated bioweapons, cyberattacks and misinformation campaigns. The invoice, nonetheless gentle in particulars, will probably be “among the many first makes an attempt at broad regulation of AI,” Wiener stated.
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Past the funds and synthetic intelligence, lawmakers are additionally anticipated to struggle over guidelines governing their very own elections.
Republican Assemblymember Vince Fong is operating to exchange former U.S. Home Speaker Kevin McCarthy in Congress. However he’s additionally on the poll for reelection to his Fresno Meeting seat, making a authorized kerfuffle that has angered Democrats. Fong determined to run for Congress after he had already filed for the Meeting seat.
California Secretary of State Shirley Weber at first refused to place Fong on the poll for the Congressional seat, citing a state legislation that doesn’t permit folks to seem on the poll twice. However Fong sued and a state choose dominated in his favor. Weber has stated she is going to attraction the ruling. Assemblymember Wendy Carrillo — who shouldn’t be operating for reelection as a result of she is searching for a seat on the Los Angeles Metropolis Council — has vowed to introduce laws she says “will clear up this mess.”
“By no means ought to candidates have the ability to run for 2 places of work on the similar time,” she stated.
The legislative session runs by the tip of August, however lawmakers solely have till the tip of January to resolve which of the payments launched final yr, if any, they are going to try to move this yr.
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Among the many leftover payments is a proposal by Democratic Senators Catherine Blakespear and Nancy Skinner to require gun homeowners to hold legal responsibility insurance coverage to cowl the negligent or unintentional use of their firearms. The invoice, launched in 2022, confronted fierce opposition from firearms teams final yr who stated such necessities violate gun homeowners’ constitutional rights.
Different payments embody a proposal to require group faculties and California State College campuses to determine a psychological well being hotline, a measure to subsidize housing for seniors and adults with disabilities, and a plan to ban homeless encampments inside 1,000 ft (305 meters) of a faculty, park, or library, amongst others.
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