The author of California's recently vetoed AI bill, SB 1047, was clueless about the real dangers of AI and not qualified to have an opinion on global national security issues, said Vinod Khosla. That was while speaking during an onstage interview at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024.

"He's clueless about the real dangers, which are national security issues," said Khosla, referring to Senator Wiener, who represents San Francisco in California's legislature. "I'm a huge supporter of him when it comes to his efforts on housing and NIMBYism and stuff. So huge supporter on those issues because they are local issues. This is a global national security issue. He's not qualified to have an opinion there."

SB 1047 was the most protested bill on AI passed into the California legislative body yet to be vetoed by the governor at the behest of Silicon Valley, Nancy Pelosi, and the United States Department of Commerce. Such a bill tries to get the laboratories in AI liable when AI models in their work unleash the worst dangers - even when not responsible for performing it in the dangerous form.

Senator Wiener to TechCrunch on Monday's comments by Khosla: "Incredibly arrogant" for suggesting, he said, "only AI technologists and mega-investors have a right to an opinion" when it comes to AI societal impact.

"I appreciate Mr. Khosla's support of my work on housing.". For the record, I have no idea how to build a house, so I work with brilliant housing experts to craft smart housing policy," said Wiener in an emailed statement to TechCrunch. "Similarly, in crafting and advancing SB 1047, I worked with some of the top AI experts on the planet, including Geoffrey Hinton, who pioneered machine learning and just won the Nobel Prize in Physics for doing so."

Many in Silicon Valley, including Khosla, argued that SB 1047 would make tech companies unwilling to publish the most advanced AI models in California, thus reducing America's competitive advantage in the race for AI. In September, Khosla wrote an opinion piece in The Sacramento Bee arguing that this bill could have global implications for America's national security, well beyond the regulatory reach of a California state legislator.

Meanwhile, Wiener told TechCrunch that venture capitalists, including Andreessen Horowitz and Y Combinator, had run what he called a propaganda campaign against his bill. He said misinformation about the impact of SB 1047 and what the bill actually did ran wild in recent months, and accused self-interested investors of spreading it to startup founders and the media.

He also stated that he'd love to debate Wiener if he were here. Wiener is slated to speak about AI regulation at Disrupt on Wednesday, though the senator suggested Khosla should debate the AI researcher, Geoffrey Hinton, who supported SB 1047.