THE BUZZ: AI DIPLOMACY — Global tech leaders who gathered for a historic artificial intelligence safety summit in San Francisco this week are keeping close tabs on California as Washington looks poised to scrap guardrails for the emerging technology under President-elect Donald Trump. The International Network of AI Safety Institutes, launched during a summit held Wednesday and Thursday at the Golden Gate Club in SF’s Presidio, brought together politicians, CEOs and diplomats from the United States, European Union and eight other nations in search of ways to best mitigate potential dangers posed by powerful AI systems. U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo even visited town to deliver a keynote address. But it came as America’s commitments to regulating the technology stand on shaky ground. The U.S. AI Safety Institute, which organized the event as a way to flex Washington’s tech leadership muscles and coordinate global research and funding efforts, could shutter as soon as next year, should Trump make good on his vow to repeal President Joe Biden’s 2023 executive order that outlined U.S. efforts to govern advanced AI models. Those uneasy vibes swirled like a dark cloud around what was billed as a monumental gathering, even as leaders like Raimondo tried to project confidence. "I think there's a lot of political uncertainty," Joe Cowan of the British Embassy in Washington told Playbook, referencing Trump’s potential to yank America from global AI safety conversations. So did the idea that, if America steps back from AI safety under Trump, California will remain a powerful global player on the tech frontier. “What happens here matters to the world,” Clara Chappaz, who was named France’s first AI minister earlier this year, told tech leaders gathered Tuesday evening at Salesforce Tower for a pre-summit reception. Chappaz said she chose the Bay Area for her first international visit because there’s “so much work” being done in the region on AI innovation and safety. California is already a diplomatic hotbed for tech. Europe has an envoy to Silicon Valley, Gerard de Graaf, and the United Kingdom just this summer opened a branch of its AI Safety Institute in San Francisco “to tap into the wealth of tech talent available in the Bay Area.” The U.K. is even hosting its own parallel AI safety meeting in San Francisco, continuing today. The state Legislature has also taken on worldwide reach. Multiple attendees at Tuesday’s reception said they were closely watching California’s next moves, given state lawmakers passed a slew of nation-leading bills this past year that cracked down on deepfakes and other AI-generated content. One lawmaker came up frequently: state Sen. Scott Wiener, who authored comprehensive and controversial legislation last session that would have required large-scale AI models to undergo safety testing. Gov. Gavin Newsom rejected the bill in September, saying in his veto message that it failed at “protecting the public from real threats posed by the technology.” Wiener told Playbook last week he’s “trying to work with a variety of stakeholders to see the public common ground” before reviving the effort during the upcoming legislative session, but that they “don't have any results yet.”
Yet Wiener said he remains “eager to see what the governor and his working group do” — a reference to Newsom’s promise to convene a task force to develop “common sense guardrails” for AI after vetoing Wiener’s bill. Newsom’s office did not answer a request for updates on the working group’s activities.
Should Wiener and other California lawmakers continue pursuing legislation targeted at transparency and accountability for the growing AI industry, they’ll likely have worldwide company. Representatives from China, Poland and Israel attended this week’s summit as the nations weigh whether to join the international AI safety network. “The momentum is slowing down on AI” safety in Washington, Kazuhisa Motoyama, a Japanese government official who works in tech policy, told Playbook at the summit. “But other countries are very engaged.” GOOD MORNING. Happy Friday. Thanks for waking up with Playbook. You can text us at 916-562-0685 — save it as “CA Playbook” in your contacts. Or drop us a line at dgardiner@politico.com and tkatzenberger@politico.com, or on X — @DustinGardiner and @TylerKatzen. WHERE’S GAVIN? Nothing official announced.
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