ASSEMBLY SCIENCE, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY COMMITTEE

STATEMENT TO

ASSEMBLY RESOLUTION No. 158

with committee amendments

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

DATED:  OCTOBER 21, 2024

      The Assembly Science, Innovation and Technology Committee reports favorably and with committee amendments Assembly Resolution No. 158.

      As amended and reported, this resolution urges generative artificial intelligence companies to make voluntary commitments to protect employees who raise risk-related concerns.

     Artificial intelligence technology has the potential to provide unprecedented benefits to humanity but many serious risks associated with artificial intelligence are currently unregulated, and existing whistleblower protections are inadequate to protect employees from retaliation for publicly disclosing concerns.

     In the absence of government oversight, employees of artificial intelligence companies are among the few individuals capable of holding the companies accountable.  However, broad confidentiality agreements prevent employees from voicing concerns beyond the company failing to address the issues.

     Additionally, independent evaluation is critical to identifying the risk posed by artificial intelligence systems, but is stymied by the lack of both legal and technical safe harbor, without which evaluators face legal reprisal or account suspension or termination.  Legal safe harbor protects evaluators from legal reprisal, and technical safe harbor protects evaluators from account suspension or termination.

     The resolution urges generative artificial intelligence companies to make voluntary commitments to mitigate the risks of artificial intelligence by adhering to certain principles regarding employee protections, as listed in the resolution.

COMMITTEE AMENDMENTS:

The committee amended the resolution to make grammatical corrections and to clarify that the reference to “company risk-related concerns” refers to “artificial intelligence companies’ risk-related concerns.”