“In case you affect the state of California, that has important heft on the federal degree, too,” British Consul Common Tammy Sandhu instructed Playbook throughout an interview on a fall night at her workplace in a excessive rise off San Francisco’s Market Avenue. “What we acknowledge is which you could really obtain so much — generally extra — on the state degree.”
Moments later, Sandhu walked briskly down the corridor to host a reception for
Matt Clifford
, a high synthetic intelligence adviser to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. The occasion drew native tech executives and elected officers, together with San Francisco Supervisors Rafael Mandelman and Ahsha Safaí and advisers to state Sen. Scott Wiener. Clifford, who was on the town to tour Synthetic Intelligence labs, mingled with the group as they sipped California wines and snacked on appetizers in a convention room embellished with British flags.
Clifford, coincidentally, flew into city on the identical day that Gov. Gavin Newsom
signed an government order
outlining California’s strategy to shaping the secure growth of AI. He’s one in every of a number of U.Ok. cabinet-level officers who’ve visited San Francisco in latest months, together with Commerce Secretary Kemi Badenoch and Secretary of State for Protection Grant Shapps.
What they’re watching: The UK has beefed up its presence in lots of components of the world since leaving the European Union, because the nation is now not represented by EU diplomats. In California, it’s trying to construct relationships with state leaders and assist form laws in areas like synthetic intelligence, information privateness and electrical autos.
Clifford, a tech government, has pressured the necessity to develop security guidelines for AI that don’t stifle innovation. Staffers from the consulate have not too long ago met with Wiener’s workplace to debate a invoice he’s carrying to curb security dangers in AI growth.
However the position of a overseas diplomat is mostly in contrast to that of others on the state Capitol. British envoys don’t sometimes assist or oppose laws and as an alternative concentrate on sharing technical experience that would make it simpler for firms to adjust to the foundations in each international locations, stated Christopher Cambises, the U.Ok. consul’s head of political affairs in Sacramento. They’re intermediaries attempting to make sure that the foundations play nicely with industries on each side of the Atlantic.
Shared sensibilities: Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis, a former U.S. ambassador to Hungary, famous the EU, Singapore, Eire and Italy are additionally sending extra diplomats to California, which has been very happy to obtain them.
4 days after she and Newsom had been sworn into workplace in 2019, Kounalakis stated, the governor known as and requested her to steer an effort to develop California’s worldwide outreach. Many countries have been receptive, she stated, perceiving California as a steady associate amid dysfunction in Washington, and higher aligned on points like local weather change and girls’s rights.
“Our overseas companions are deeply involved
about Trumpism
, and it’s clear California is nowhere close to happening that path,” Kounalakis stated.
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