With Congress at an all-time low in terms of the amount of legislation it has passed, the public is turning to the state level as a way to push forward change. This week in California, the post-AI wave is being felt as legislators moved forward a number of tech and privacy bills aimed at protecting Californians from algorithms, deepfakes, AI and the sharing of personal data. With these bills, Californians are one step closer to being able to convey their privacy preferences in one step, as well as know more about autonomous vehicles on our roads.

Here’s a rundown of what has trickled through the state legislature this week:
 
 
One-Step Opt Out
 
The top three browsers—Chrome, Safari and Edge—make up for nearly 90 percent of the browser market share. But they do not allow users to submit their data privacy preference signals in one collective swoop, leaving people clicking through a maze of privacy options. However, advancing out of the Committee on Appropriations this week is Assembly Bill 3048 (Lowenthal), the so-called privacy preference signal bill that will allow users to opt out of the sale of personal information in one step. Without this bill, people will be more likely to give up on exercising their privacy rights. A simple bill, it will help streamline rights and make it easier for Californians to maintain privacy.
 
 
Bridging the Data Gap for Autonomous Vehicles
 
While the National Highway Transportation Safety Association (NHTSA) views AVs as an emerging technology and requires crash data for testing permits by AV companies to be submitted, the California Department of Motor Vehicles does not. This is data that the public wouldn’t know about if it asked AV makers or the DMV. Currently the law doesn’t mandate that the DMV report collision and disengagement data for deployment permits.

But per Assembly Bill 3061 (Haney), which advanced out of the Assembly Communications and Conveyance Committee Wednesday, a maker of an AV will have to report to the DMV any accident, traffic violation, disengagement, or harassment of any passenger in the state of California. Such reports will be published online within 30 days. If not, companies will face fines, or suspension of a testing or deployment permit. The bill will align California with the stronger reporting threshold that is provided to NHTSA

AVs have been abruptly stopping, blocking traffic, flashing wrong turn signals, and impeding emergency responders from doing their jobs. Last year, a Cruise robotaxi struck a pedestrian and failed to disclose the footage to the DMV. It begged the question: if Cruise didn’t coverup the incident, would the DMV still have taken action?

There is a clear disconnect between what AV companies Waymo and Cruise are saying about the safety of their vehicles and what the public and first responders are dealing with on a day-to-day basis. This bill will resolve that by giving us a clearer picture of AVs.
 

Algorithms

A bill that will force companies to complete impact assessments on their automated decisionmaking technology (ADMT) passed out of the Judiciary Committee and onto Appropriations. Assembly Bill 2930 (Bauer-Kahan), which is a revived version of Assembly Member Rebecca Bauer-Kahan’s stalled AB 331, is aimed at stopping discrimination and biased datasets by companies. It authorizes the Civil Rights Department to investigate a report of algorithmic discrimination.

Bauer-Kahan explained the bill this way to the Judiciary Committee:
 
“In the current regime you have to wait for a lot of harm for a civil rights law to come into play. This puts an onus on these developers to say: ‘Okay, we’re going to try and prevent that.’”
 
The bill, which is modeled after the Biden Administration’s AI Bill of Rights, has many overlaps with the California Consumer Privacy Act, whose draft regulations mandate that a business must submit a risk assessment when its ADMT makes a significant decision concerning a consumer.
 
 
AI to Stop AI
 
Assembly Bill 2655 (Berman and Pellerin), a bill aimed at combating deepfakes, passed out of the Judiciary Committee. But first it was proceeded by a discussion about whether the bill would survive on constitutional grounds. Fellow assembly members expressed concern about the bill going beyond regulating deepfake technology, and instead acting as a censor of political speech. Berman said he will seek to tailor the legislation as narrowly as possible.
 
 
AI 

If AI created a bill, it might be called The Safe and Secure Innovation for Frontier Artificial Intelligence (AI) Systems Act. But it’s a real bill, Senate Bill 1047 (Wiener), which would require “developers of powerful AI models and those providing the computing power to train such models to place appropriate safeguards and policies to prevent critical harms.” Per the bill, companies will have to conduct self-assessments to prevent AI-enabled crime and weapons of mass destruction. Safety measures must be conducted before deploying models. If not, enforcement action can be undertaken by the Attorney General’s Office and companies would face financial penalties. The bill would also create a state agency to police AI called the Frontier Model Division within the California Department of Technology. The bill moved from the Senate Committee on Governmental Organization to Appropriations. 
 
 
The Delete the Delete Act Bill
 
A bill that would have gutted last year’s Delete Act—Senate Bill 1076 (Wilk)—was pulled in the Judiciary Committee at the last minute following an analysis. The Delete Act, which has yet to take effect, will allow for consumers to delete their personal information collected by data brokers via one click. This bill was deceptively branded as protecting people’s security when in reality it would engage consumers seeking to delete their personal information from data brokers by trapping them in an endless cycle of notices and consent forms.
 
 
Autonomous Truckers

Although robotaxis must undergo testing with a safety driver, that is not the case for an AV weighing over 10,001 pounds. Passing out of the Communications & Conveyance Committee, Assembly Bill 2286 (Aguiar-Curry), seeks to change that. Under the bill, it would provide a framework for autonomous trucks as they undergo testing. Backed by a consortium of labor, the bill requires that a certified human safety operator supervises AVs when they are on public roads. It will also provide better data that will be analyzed by the state’s executive branch. This should allow technology to develop safely and help the state’s transportation workers get better accustomed to AV technology.