California Governor Gavin Newsom vetoed a 2024 bill that would have created legal liabilities for artificial intelligence companies in the event of catastrophes involving terrorism, mass casualties, or other societal damage. The bill also would have required AI companies to maintain kill switches to turn off AI processes. Newsom stated in his veto message: "Given the stakes — protecting against actual threats without unnecessarily thwarting the promise of this technology to advance the public good — we must get this right."

The veto comes as Newsom has taken other steps to address AI’s societal impacts. In 2023, he backed a frontier-safety law requiring major AI developers to identify and mitigate risks before deploying their products. He also signed an executive order directing California state agencies to collaborate with industry groups, academics, and organized labor to assess and offset AI’s effects on California workers.

At a May 19 conference convened by the Center for American Progress, Newsom said: "The whole system has to be reimagined, and we’re not — I don’t think we’re having an accelerated or advanced conversation right now; we’re still discussing who’s going to pay for my increased electricity because of the data center, which is a legit issue. But it’s not the issue, and the tech genie is not going to go back in the bottle."

Jason Elliott, a policy-minded political consultant and former deputy chief of staff to Newsom, defended the governor’s approach. "Just because you can name a problem and take a problem very seriously doesn’t mean that every single solution someone proposes is proper," Elliott said. He added, "I have never seen an issue move as quickly as AI, and it’s not even close. So every elected official’s position naturally should be evolving on AI from week to week and month to month, because the underlying technology itself seems to change every day."