This month, the California State Assembly is set to vote on Senate Bill 1047, legislation that could significantly disrupt AI research. If history is any guide, California could once again drag the entire country towards unpopular tech regulation. Yet the bill’s sponsors have been caught off guard by the backlash from academics and the AI industry. “I did not appreciate how toxic the division is,” admitted state Sen. Scott Wiener (D–San Francisco), who introduced the bill. Academics, open-source developers, and companies of all sizes are waking up to the threat this bill poses to their future….