Newsom takes it upon himself to defend California’s AI startups against Trump

The next time the federal government designates a business as a supply chain risk, as the Department of Defense did last month to San Francisco-based artificial intelligence tools maker Anthropic, the state of California will review that designation and make its own decision about whether to do business with them.

This is according to an executive order signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday. The order followed a dispute between Anthropic and the Department of Defense over contract clauses barring the military from using Anthropic systems for home mass surveillance and a fully autonomous weapon.

By identifying Anthropic as a supply chain risk, The Ministry of Defense effectively banned the launch from competition for certain military contracts and subcontracts. A judge recently issued a temporary injunction to block the designation.

The broader goal of Newsom’s order was to put railings on the use of AI by government officials while encouraging them to accelerate their use of the technology.

Many of the world’s largest AI companies are based in California, as well as in the state leads the nation in volume of AI regulations.

The order requires state agencies to:

• Develop recommendations for government contracting standards related to AI and its ability to generate child sexual abuse material, violate civil liberties and civil rights laws, or violate legal “protections against unlawful discrimination, detention and surveillance.” Help employees gain access to “proven GenAI tools.”
• Update State digital strategy to identify ways generative AI can “strengthen government transparency and accountability, improve efficiency and make government services easily accessible to every Californian.”
• Develop generative AI for Californians to access government services.
• Issue guidelines on how government officials should watermark AI-generated images and videos.

These mandates come at a time when more than 20 California departments and agencies are working to do just that develop or use Poppygenerative AI assistant for government employees and when they are half a dozen government agencies AI testing to do things like help government officials and help homeless people and businesses. They also come as state courts and city governments are increasing their use of the technology.

Newsom’s office said President Donald Trump and Republicans in Washington have rolled back protections or ignored the ways AI could harm people.

“Unlike the Trump administration, California remains committed to ensuring that AI solutions adopted and implemented by (California) … cannot be abused by bad actors,” the governor’s office said in a press release announcing the order.

At the federal level, Trump has signed executive orders to discourage states from regulating AI and called on federal agencies to adopt AI to do things like reducing federal regulation and speeding up Medicare decision-making. The White House introduced a policy framework for AI last month, which the president wants Congress to consider. This proposal takes a light approach to regulation and does not address issues of bias, discrimination or civil rights.

This is the second executive order Newsom has signed to address artificial intelligence. A 2023 order aimed exclusively at generative AI, the kind that powers systems like ChatGPT and Midjourney, similarly calls for more use of AI by government agencies and he ordered them to put up barriers.

Newsom’s handling of AI issues has been watched closely by the two union leaders, who in Feb vowed they would not support his bid for president without more protections for tech workers, and major technology donors who are pouring money into influencing politics in California before the midterm elections this fall.