Earlier this week,, Governor Newsom vetoed California’s AI Safety bill—a huge setback for people with disabilities.
The bill aimed to address bias in AI by setting standards for data set quality and requiring oversight. Why does this matter for people with disabilities? AI is already being used in hiring, healthcare, and public benefits. The results are often disastrous, even resulting in alleged deaths, because biased data sets being used by biased people exclude disabled individuals by misinterpreting their needs.
Without oversight, these biases will continue to go unchecked, further marginalizing people with disabilities. This isn’t just a political move. It leaves a vacuum where discrimination will continue until something is passed. Newsom should have worked with the legislators to pass something he would have signed, rather than vetoing it because Silicon Valley companies didn’t like it.
Hopefully this is a temporary fail and the coalition that Newsom has formed will come up with better legislation quickly that will protect underrepresented communities affected by AI bias.