Golden State Today

Governor Newsom convenes GenAI leaders for landmark summit

May 29, 2024

SAN FRANCISCO – Governor Gavin Newsom and leaders from various sectors, including technology, government, academia, labor, and civic organizations, gathered at the Joint California Summit on Generative AI to collaborate on and examine this transformative technology. The summit was a follow-up to Governor Newsom’s GenAI Executive Order issued in September 2023.

“California is the globe’s artificial intelligence leader, and today’s summit continues to showcase the state’s commitment to innovation. GenAI is here and developing quickly – our innovation hubs and state leaders are quickly evolving to use it equitably and responsibly so it benefits all Californians,” said Governor Gavin Newsom.

The event was organized by the California Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development (GO-Biz), the California Government Operations Agency, the UC Berkeley College of Computing, Data Science, and Society, and the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence (HAI). Newsom had directed his agencies to pursue a partnership with these higher education institutions as part of his executive order on GenAI last year.

California is home to 35 of the world’s 50 leading AI companies, significant research and education institutions, and holds a quarter of the technology's patents and conference papers. The summit aimed to address how AI will shape various aspects of society. Discussions included its impact on future work in California, potential solutions for urgent issues like climate change, infrastructure barriers that could impede progress, and strategies for overcoming them.

“We want to ensure the future we are building with generative AI puts humanity at the forefront,” said Jennifer Chayes, dean of the UC Berkeley College of Computing, Data Science, and Society. “California provides a vibrant environment for AI development. We have a window of opportunity to collectively pursue a measured approach that incentivizes innovation while ensuring safety.”

Attendees included representatives from federal and state governments, Fortune 500 companies, and leading universities. Panels featured speakers such as NVIDIA Head of Strategic Initiatives Louis Stewart; Databricks Chief Technology Officer Matei Zaharia; U.S. General Services Administration Administrator Robin Carnahan; California Government Operations Agency Secretary Amy Tong; California Labor and Workforce Development Agency Secretary Stewart Knox; Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development Director Dee Dee Myers; along with incoming university leaders Rich Lyons from Berkeley and Jonathan Levin from Stanford.

“With AI’s potential to radically transform every industry and every society, it’s critical that we design machine intelligence to be human-centered and benevolent,” said Stanford HAI Co-Director Fei-Fei Li. “For this to happen, we must invest more in the public sector to help shape the development path of this technology to serve humanity. With Stanford HAI’s multidisciplinary approach that balances diverse expertise across disciplines, we are delighted to play a role in this timely summit.”

Today’s event was recorded and available here.