MANY MINDEDCalifornia AI Order Sparks EFF Caution on Innovation Costs
California Governor Gavin Newsom issued an AI executive order on or about September 18, 2026. The Electronic Frontier Foundation supports this order as a starting point for managing AI risks but identifies three immediate harms: biased algorithmic decisions affecting employment and government benefits, AI-powered surveillance systems including Flock cameras, and artificially inflated personalized pricing. EFF urges expanding reporting requirements under California SB 53 (2025) for loss-of-control incidents while cautioning that government-controlled AI kill switches remain unproven and could be misused to retaliate against protected speech. The organization states that current kill switch effectiveness is an active research area with no verified implementation.
This regulatory move creates friction for AI developers by potentially increasing compliance costs and slowing innovation. The three identified harms directly impact access to fair employment, privacy protection, and equitable pricing—core needs in the Commons sector. While the order aims to address risks, its implementation could gatekeep AI tools from reaching communities through higher costs or restricted functionality.
What to watch: Whether expanded reporting under SB 53 (2025) will effectively track loss-of-control incidents, and whether unproven kill switches might create new barriers to speech. The EFF emphasizes that current solutions lack verification, meaning developers may face unintended consequences without proven safeguards. The source material does not specify how this affects broader abundance metrics or include concrete examples beyond the stated harms.
Source: EFF Deeplinks