Hawaii legislators introduce first of its kind bill to create an Office of AI Safety and Regulation
Amazingly, we have a bill pending in the Hawaii Legislature, in both houses, that would create a new Office of AI Safety and Regulation.
Thanks so much to Senators Gabbard and Representatives Perruso, Kapela and Marten, for sponsoring these bills.
The bill language at this point follows closely a draft that I wrote a few months ago and that I have been discussing with these legislators since then.
Please follow this bill (click the links) and submit testimony in support as it makes its way through committees. This bill will face serious hurdles largely b/c many people view AI as a financial bonanza (which it will be in the short term) and simply haven’t thought through at all the downsides of unregulated AI.
This bill is not meant to squelch AI in Hawaii. Rather, it’s meant to implement the Precautionary Principle in requiring all AI developers to demonstrate the safety of their products BEFORE deploying them in Hawaii.
This is a very common sense approach and is the same approach used for pharmaceuticals, cars and many other products.
Here’s the Senate version:
https://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/session/measure_indiv.aspx?billtype=SB&billnumber=2572&year=2024
And here’s the House version:
https://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/session/measure_indiv.aspx?billtype=HB&billnumber=2176&year=2024
