Since a lot of people don’t seem to know this, thought I’d share: California’s AI safety bill requires AIs have a kill switch – with an exemption for open source

There was concern that mandating having a kill switch would kill open source. Because if it’s open source, it can’t have a kill switch.

I’m glad they’ve added the exemption so we can get the benefits of open source while also having the benefit of a kill switch for the rest of AIs.

Check out the most up to date bill yourself to see. The relevant text is:

“(k) “Full shutdown” means the cessation of operation of all of the following:

(1) The training of a covered model.

(2) A covered model controlled by a developer.

(3) All covered model derivatives controlled by a developer.”

They added “controlled by a developer” to exempt open source from that part of the bill.

Open source AIs will still be liable for causing mass casualties, but they’re already liable for that. All corporations are. This law doesn’t change anything about that.