California AI Bills Face Lawmaker Trims in Cash-Strapped State

California lawmakers are paring down a number of tech bills, especially measures that would place guardrails around AI, largely over state budget concerns.

The state Senate and Assembly appropriations committees on May 23 considered hundreds of bills that originated in their respective chambers in a lightning-fast hearing, a crucial step where all measures with fiscal impact have to be considered against the state’s finances. The Assembly committee narrowed a measure that would have been the nation’s most comprehensive AI law on children safety.

Appropriators removed proposed regulations or requirements in the measures in an effort to reduce the cost on ...