SAN FRANCISCO, Aug 21 (Reuters) - California legislators

are set to vote on a bill as soon as this week that would

broadly regulate how artificial intelligence is developed and

deployed in California even as a number of tech giants have

voiced broad opposition.

Here is background on the bill, known as SB 1047, and why it

has faced backlash from Silicon Valley technologists and some

lawmakers:

WHAT DOES THE BILL DO?

Advanced by State Senator Scott Wiener, a Democrat, the

proposal would mandate safety testing for many of the most

advanced AI models that cost more than $100 million to develop

or those that require a defined amount of computing power.

Developers of AI software operating in the state would also need

to outline methods for turning off the AI models if they go

awry, effectively a kill switch.

The bill would also give the state attorney general the

power to sue if developers are not compliant, particularly in

the event of an ongoing threat, such as the AI taking over

government systems like the power grid.

As well, the bill would require developers to hire

third-party auditors to assess their safety practices and

provide additional protections to whistleblowers speaking out

against AI abuses.

WHAT HAVE LAWMAKERS SAID?

SB 1047 has already passed the state Senate by a 32-1 vote.

Last week it passed the state Assembly appropriations committee,

setting up a vote by the full Assembly. If it passes by the end

of the legislative session on Aug. 31, it would advance to

Governor Gavin Newsom to sign or veto by Sept. 30.

Wiener, who represents San Francisco, home to OpenAI and

many of the startups developing the powerful software, has said

legislation is necessary to protect the public before advances

in AI become either unwieldy or uncontrollable.

However, a group of California Congressional Democrats

oppose the bill, including San Francisco's Nancy Pelosi; Ro

Khanna, whose congressional district encompasses much of Silicon

Valley; and Zoe Lofgren, from San Jose.

Pelosi this week called SB 1047 ill-informed and said it may

cause more harm than good. In an open letter last week, the

Democrats said the bill could drive developers from the state

and threaten so-called open-source AI models, which rely on code

that is freely available for anyone to use or modify.

WHAT DO TECH LEADERS SAY?

Tech companies developing AI - which can respond to prompts

with fully formed text, images or audio as well as run

repetitive tasks with minimal intervention - have called for

stronger guardrails for AI's deployment. They have cited risks

that the software could one day evade human intervention and

cause cyberattacks, among other concerns. But they also largely

balked at SB 1047.

Wiener revised the bill to appease tech companies, relying

in part on input from AI startup Anthropic - backed by Amazon ( AMZN )

and Alphabet. Among other changes, he

eliminated the creation of a government AI oversight committee.

Wiener also took out criminal penalties for perjury, though

civil suits may still be brought.

Alphabet's Google and Meta have expressed concerns

in letters to Wiener. Meta said the bill threatens to make the

state unfavorable to AI development and deployment. The Facebook

parent's chief scientist, Yann LeCun, in a July X post called

the bill potentially harmful to research efforts.

OpenAI, whose ChatGPT is credited with accelerating the

frenzy over AI since its broad release in late 2022, has said AI

should be regulated by the federal government and that SB 1047

creates an uncertain legal environment.

Of particular concern is the potential for the bill to apply

to open-source AI models. Many technologists believe open-source

models are important for creating less risky AI applications

more quickly, but Meta and others have fretted that they could

be held responsible for policing open-source models if the bill

passes. Wiener has said he supports open-source models and one

of the recent amendments to the bill raised the standard for

which open-sourced models are covered under its provisions.

The bill also has its backers in the technology sector.

Geoffrey Hinton, widely credited as a "godfather of AI," former

OpenAI employee Daniel Kokotajlo and researcher Yoshua Bengio

have said they support the bill.