xAI loses bid to halt California AI data disclosure law

Elon Musk's artificial intelligence company xAI failed to ​convince a California federal court on Thursday to ‌temporarily block the state's law requiring companies to disclose information about the data they use to train AI models.

US District Judge Jesus ​Bernal in Los Angeles said that xAI had not ​yet shown it was likely to prove the law ⁠violated its free-speech rights or was otherwise unconstitutional.

Spokespeople for ​xAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment ​on the ruling. A spokesperson for the California Department of Justice said the department "celebrates this key win and remains committed to continuing our ​defense" of the law.

California's law, enacted by Governor Gavin ​Newsom in September 2024, requires generative AI companies to publicly post a ‌summary ⁠of the datasets used to train their systems. The data transparency law went into effect on January 1, and is part of the state's broader push to regulate AI companies.

xAI ​sued the ​state in December. ⁠It argued the law violated its free-speech rights under the US Constitution and would ​force the company to reveal trade secrets about ​how ⁠its AI models are trained.

Bernal on Thursday denied xAI's request for a preliminary injunction to halt the law's enforcement, finding ⁠the ​company had not shown at this ​stage in the case that its lawsuit was likely to succeed.