Sacramento Report: Two Bills That Want to Stuff the AI Genie Back Into the Bottle

You’ve probably heard about a deepfake robocall of President Joe Biden that urged Democrats not to vote in the New Hampshire primary. Maybe you also heard former President Donald Trump allege that his adversaries used AI ads to make him look “pathetic.”

Advances in artificial intelligence are sending voters and news consumers down a rabbit hole that the Washington Post warns is “destabilizing the concept of truth itself.”

With the AI genie out of the bottle, California lawmakers are seeking ways to stuff it back in. State Sen. Steve Padilla, D-San Diego, recently introduced two bills to regulate its use. Those rules concern the role of AI in government – not in politics or private industry – but they could create a playbook for broader AI regulation.

“Our bills could set a standard that would play a role in the national and global conversation,” Padilla said.

SB892 would set “safety, privacy, and nondiscrimination standards” for state contractors using AI technology. The second bill, SB893, proposes a “California AI Research Hub,” to coordinate AI use and development between public agencies, universities and private companies. It aims to spark innovation in artificial intelligence while making sure it’s used in a trustworthy manner.

The language in both bills sets broad goals, but state agencies would flesh out the details, Padilla said. 

So what would the standards look like? I asked Stuart Geiger, an assistant professor of communication and data science at UC San Diego, to explain what the rules might mean.

Privacy protections typically ensure individual control of personal information, including “who gets to use it, whether it’s allowed to be sold or used without your consent.”

Nondiscrimination provisions could reduce bias in the way AI is used for hiring, resume screening, unemployment benefits and fraud detection, he said. 

“If we’ve had discriminatory hiring practices and we use the results of those past decisions on machine learning models, computers learn those patterns,” he said.

Padilla’s bills are part of a broader push for AI accountability, including a related bill by state Sen. Bill Dodd, D-Napa, SB-896, which also calls for AI guardrails. It would require public notification when AI is used in government communications. And it directs state agencies to report on the risks and benefits of AI, ominously warning of potential threats to the energy infrastructure that could trigger “mass casualty events or environmental emergencies.”

Another bill, AB1831, introduced by Assemblymember Marc Berman, D-Menlo Park, would criminalize child pornography produced through AI. He notes that while the images are fake, they draw from photos of actual child abuse, and could prompt harm to real children.

San Diego Is Making a Case for Flood Relief Dollars 

San Diego County is eligible for state aid to help communities recover from last week’s floods, Board of Supervisors Chair Nora Vargas said. But first county and state officials have to tally up storm damages.

Gov. Gavin Newsom issued an emergency proclamation after the storm, noting the “extreme peril” caused by “widespread flooding, mudslides, and debris flows.” That paves the way for the state to offer flood relief and apply for federal funds on San Diego’s behalf, Cal Office of Emergency Services spokesperson Brian Ferguson said. 

Aid requests work their way up the government food chain, escalating to higher levels as the dollar value of damage rises, he said. 

Cities can ask the county for help after a disaster, he said: “If it’s too big for the county, the county asks for state aid. Then the state can ask the federal government to assist.”

Various formulas determine whether disaster losses meet the threshold for FEMA aid. Ferguson said local and state emergency officials haven’t calculated total damages for San Diego yet, but are documenting the wreckage, “to make the best possible case for reaching those programs.”

The county is also taking local action on flood relief. On Tuesday, the board of supervisors approved a package of emergency measures in a four to one vote, with Supervisor Joel Anderson opposed. They include preventing “unjust evictions” and giving rental assistance to flood victims, waiving building and water permit fees for homes, hazmat businesses and restaurants affected by the storm, and shifting $10 million in federal pandemic funding to flood assistance. The county also offered safety tips for the next batch of storms.

Meanwhile, some residents of inundated areas say the city of San Diego didn’t do its job on flood prevention. This story by Voice of San Diego’s MacKenzie Elmer explores their complaints that delays in dredging Chollas Creek worsened storm damage.

Controversial Utility Fee on the Chopping Block

Assembly Democrats introduced a bill to reverse a controversial income-based utility fee Tuesday. Their Republican colleagues say it’s about time.

Passed in 2022, AB205 calls for an “income-graduated” utility fee, with higher income rate-payers charged more, to offset costs to lower income households. But the bill, which passed largely without scrutiny as a trailer to a larger budget package, had unintended consequences that lawmakers are now trying to fix.

Proponents say that would offer relief to low-income customers in the form of reduced electric rates. Critics argue it would burden other rate-payers and discourage energy conservation. 

On Tuesday Assemblymembers Chris Ward, D-San Diego, and Akilah Weber, D-La Mesa, teamed up with Jacqui Irwin, D-Thousand Oaks, to replace AB205 with more modest utility fees.

“At a time when energy conservation is badly needed to avoid rolling blackouts, this dramatic policy shift could actually result in increased usage,” Irwin said in a statement, adding that the task of verifying income is “impractical and cost prohibitive.”

San Diego Democrats Tasha Boerner and Brian Maienschein, along with state Sen. Catherine Blakespear, also supported the new bill, AB1999, which would set monthly utility fees of $5 to $10. That’s far less than SDG&E and Sierra Club proposals for fee tiers, which would top out at $73 to $136 per month.

Senate Minority Leader Brian Jones, R-Santee, has argued against the fee since it passed last year as a trailer to a larger budget bill. 

“We are glad to see that our calls for action have finally been heard by more members in the majority party,” Jones’ spokesperson Nina Krishel said in a statement.

In a separate action Tuesday, Senate Republicans tried unsuccessfully to force a vote to repeal the fee.

This Week in the Legislature

• AB 1635, by Assemblymember Chris Ward, D-San Diego, to develop housing with a new DMV field office in Hillcrest passed the Assembly. You can read more about it in this recent Sacramento Report.
• SB689, by State Sen. Catherine Blakespear, D-Encinitas, making  it easier to construct bike lanes in coastal areas passed the Senate on Monday.
• SB764, by State Sen. Steve Padilla, D-San Diego, to establish financial protections for child content creators on social media platforms, passed the Senate Monday.

The Sacramento Report runs every Friday. Do you have tips, ideas or questions? Send them to me at deborah@voiceofsandiego.org.