California lawmakers pass AI safety bill SB 53 - but Newsom could still veto | TechCrunch

"As described by its author, state senator Scott Wiener, SB 53 "requires large AI labs to be transparent about their safety protocols, creates whistleblower protections for [employees] at AI labs & creates a public cloud to expand compute access (CalCompute)." The bill now goes to California Governor Gavin Newsom to sign or veto. He has not commented publicly on SB 53, but last year, he vetoed a more expansive safety bill also authored by Wiener, while signing narrower legislation targeting issues like deepfakes."

"Politico also reports that SB 53 was recently amended so that companies developing "frontier" AI models while bringing in less than $500 million in annual revenue will only need to disclose high level safety details, while companies making more than that will need to provide more detailed reports. The bill has been opposed by a number of Silicon Valley companies, VC firms, and lobbying groups. In a recent letter to Newsom, OpenAI did not mention SB 53 specifically but argued that to avoid "duplication and inconsistencies," companies should be considered compliant with statewide safety rules as long as they meet federal or European standards."

California's state senate approved SB 53 to impose new transparency and safety requirements on large AI companies, including disclosure of safety protocols, whistleblower protections for AI lab employees, and creation of a public cloud called CalCompute to expand compute access. The measure proceeds to Governor Gavin Newsom, who previously vetoed a broader AI safety bill and urged targeted standards tied to deployment risk. An amendment limits detailed reporting to companies with over $500 million in annual revenue, while smaller frontier developers provide high-level disclosures. The bill faces opposition from tech firms, venture capital groups, and lobbying organizations advocating alignment with federal or European rules.

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