Relief for MR Firms as California Data Use Bill Falls

In California, a bill which would have prohibited the use of data from research subjects to train AI and develop personas has been defeated, with the Insights Association one of the voices weighing in against it.

A.B. 2027 attempted to ban the further use of personal information provided by any research subjects receiving an incentive for participation, either in training AI systems or tools, or in building synthetic data, personas or respondents. The bill was held under submission in the Assembly Appropriations Committee on May 14th, preventing it from progressing further.

Incentivised respondents are defined as independent contractors and therefore 'workers' in some legal contexts, and the bill stated that employers or their partners/vendors could not use a worker's personal information for AI training or for replacing the worker's job. The latter would have meant that using data supplied to create synthetic personas effectively replaced the need for the 'contractor' to perform the 'job' - ie taking part in research - in the future.

Howard Fienberg, the IA's Senior VP Advocacy, states: 'While we presume Sacramento didn't intend to hurt our industry, this bill could have crippled development of AI in the insights industry, a potential benefit to productivity, efficiency and decision-making across all sectors (including the public sector) who rely upon our work.' Recognising the good intent behind the bill, Fienberg adds: 'We will continue to reach out to the bill sponsor, should he wish to revive the bill next year, about the importance of a simple amendment to carve out research subjects participating in market research.'

Web site: www.insightsassociation.org .