Governor Newsom announces results from California’s first-in-the-nation project to involve Californians in decisions about AI | Governor of California

California has finished asking its residents what they think about artificial intelligence, and the results are in: they have thoughts. Governor Newsom has announced the results of the state's 'first-in-the-nation project' to involve Californians in decisions about AI, and the headline finding is that participants 'offered broad perspectives.' Broad perspectives is consultation-speak for we convened a room, everyone disagreed, and nobody can be blamed. And among that breadth was one participant — one — who urged strong protections for workers and transparency regarding data centers. Count them. Not a coalition. A participant.

Worth pausing on which two things the lone quotable attendee asked for, because they're the two things Californians can actually see. Data centers are the substation at the end of the road, the water bill, the hum you notice at 3am. Worker protections are the part where the productivity charts eventually meet somebody's mortgage. Meanwhile California, which spent the autumn writing rules for companion chatbots, has now produced a document about how residents feel about AI. Both are real documents, with real letterheads. Only one of them binds anybody.

'First-in-the-nation' is what you call a process when you'd like a trophy for holding a meeting. The project involved Californians in decisions about AI in roughly the sense that a suggestion box involves you in a merger. No megawatt has to be disclosed under the heading of participation; no model has to slow down; no lab has to do anything at all. The likely sequel is a longer PDF, a second round of listening sessions, and a State of the State line about California leading. Our one participant will be quoted again by somebody's press office, unprompted, until the quote wears out — which, on current form, is more accountability than the data centers have been asked to provide.