California’s AI bills run up against cash-strapped state budget

AI BILLS HIT A PAYWALL, literally, in California, where bellwether artificial intelligence legislation advancing in the state capito could be trimmed because of budget concerns.

• The California Senate and Assembly appropriations committees passed several AI bills last week, strengthening some measures like AB 853, which would expand the state’s first-in-the-nation watermarking law. Lawmakers also advanced bills that would combat algorithmic discrimination and protect AI whistleblowers, while they narrowed a measure that would impose child safety provisions around AI products.
• But cost-reducing cuts are likely in August at the next round of appropriations hearings for these bills. That could present ...