Newsom's AI Order: Strict Rules, Faster Adoption

0:00It's April 2, from your city to your ears. This is Canada News Today, powered by AI. California Governor Gavin Newsom signed an executive order this Monday to set strict rules on how state workers use artificial intelligence while pushing them to adopt it faster. This comes right after a class between AI startup Anthropic and the Defense Department where the military labeled Anthropic a supply chain risk over. Applications on using their tech for mass surveillance or fully autonomous weapons. A judge just stepped in with a temporary block on that label. The order lays out clear steps for state agencies, like creating contract standards to block AI that could produce child exploitation material or myelate civil rights. It also calls for vetted AI tools for employees, updating the state's digital plan to boost transparency and services and adding watermarks to AI-made images and videos. Newsom is already the top spot for big AI companies and leads the country in AI rules.

1:02So this move hits hard amid growing state use of tools like the Poppy AI Assistant in over 20 departments. Local courts and cities are jumping in too, testing AI for everything from helping the homeless to business support. Newsom's team is calling out the Trump administration and Republicans in Washington for easing up on AI safeguards that protect folks from misuse. This is his second such order following a 20-23-1 focused on generative AI like Chad GPT. As unions push for worker protections against AI job threats and tech donors pour cash into state politics, Newsom's balancing act on this tech could. Shape how governments everywhere handle the AI boom moving forward.