Congressional candidate Scott Wiener's tech platform would take his state AI safety work federal

"In his tech platform, shared first with Mission Local, Wiener lays out plans for more stringent regulations on AI, social media and internet providers. His competitors, tech centimillionaire Saikat Chakrabarti and Supervisor Connie Chan, have also called for regulation."

"The Trump administration had just rolled back federal net neutrality regulations, but Wiener passed a California version after what he described as a "brutal fight" where "all of the telecom and cable companies were at war with us." Now, he wants to make that law, and others, national."

""As the largest state in the heartland of tech innovation, we have an outsized impact when we do step in, but in an ideal world we would have a federal data privacy law, a federal approach to social media regulation, federal AI standards," Wiener said."

"He first started working on the issue in 2023, after meeting San Franciscans who were concerned that AI models might soon conduct cyber attacks, create bioweapons or go rogue and do things like manipulate people with personalized propaganda, crash financial markets, or seize control of infrastructure."

Scott Wiener proposes stricter national regulation of technology, beginning with making California net neutrality and AI safety rules federal. Net neutrality requires internet service providers to allow all websites to load at the same speed. Wiener previously passed a California net neutrality law after federal rules were rolled back, describing a difficult fight against telecom and cable companies. He also aims to set national standards for AI safety and social media regulation, arguing that large tech states have outsized influence and that federal approaches are needed. He cites growing support among newer members for ensuring technology serves the public rather than the other way around. He began focusing on AI safety in 2023 after meeting residents concerned about cyber attacks, bioweapons, rogue behavior, propaganda, market disruption, and infrastructure control.

Read at Mission Local