There's an idea circulating that California's proposed AI regulatory framework (SB 1047) is going to "outlaw" open-source models. This may have been somewhat implied in the original text of the bill. However, it's still evolving and has undergone amendments that its proponents say make it more friendly toward open-source models.

For example, the changes are meant to clarify that the bill targets the largest AI companies, creating some "make sure you've evaluated risks" obligations on them when creating very large foundational models for public release or usage. No model yet, not even Claude or GPT-4, has met the proposed thresholds to trigger these regulations.

Changes also clarify that liability for potential harms lies with the creators of the models, not users or distributors. Fine-tuning is even exempt unless it involves investing millions of dollars.

This law, or parts of it, may or may not be good ideas for addressing issues that arise from this technology. But it doesn't seem like it's going to cause the LLM apocalypse that some seem to fear. Though keeping the pitchfork handy might be warranted as we wait for the final text of the bill.