California Gov. Gavin Newsom's
executive order
is an opportunity for a needed, thoughtful conversation about artificial intelligence and its potential harms. Everyday Californians are feeling real anxiety about the risks of artificial intelligence, and as an organization that works to ensure technology empowers people, EFF welcomes this order as a way for the state of California to lead a much-needed dialogue that addresses these concerns.
Nonetheless, the most immediate and current concerns with this technology are not about sci-fi scenarios concerning rogue super-intelligence. They are happening right now through biased
algorithmic decision-making
for
employment
or
government benefits
,
AI-powered surveillance systems
such as
Flock cameras
, and
artificially inflated personalized pricing
. People want state and federal leaders to act, and we urge Gov. Newsom to develop thoughtful policies to address those concerns. Today’s EO is a good start.
To that end, EFF supports the focus on expanding the reporting requirements under
SB 53 (2025)
for loss-of-control incidents, alongside third-party investigations. We urge the administration to consider how to make these third-party investigations available for smaller developers. As the Government Operations Agency prepares its recommendations for the governor, we urge leaders to also realize that the effectiveness of kill switches in advanced AI systems remains an area of active research. As such, they should ensure that - as we’ve
previously mentioned
- any technology regulation targeting cybersecurity practices at AI labs must be
careful, precise, and practical
. Moreover, we also caution that government-controlled kill switches run the risk of being used as a form of retaliation against protected speech,
as demonstrated by the Trump Administration’s
retaliatory actions against Anthropic
earlier this year.
Ultimately, true safety requires California to focus on concrete, immediate, and urgent
… [more]
