California Senate Passes AI Safety Bill

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5 hrs ago

Above: Gavin Newsom in Sacramento, California, on Aug. 21, 2025. Image copyright: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

story last updated 5 hrs ago

The Spin

Techno-skeptic narrative

SB 53 would provide essential oversight of an industry developing potentially dangerous technology with little to no supervision. Large AI companies acknowledge catastrophic risks are real and rapidly increasing, yet Congress remains paralyzed on tech regulation. This bill, therefore, is the next best mechanism to place meaningful constraints in the public interest.

Scott Wiener on X Anthropic

Libertarian narrative

SB 53 risks imposing complex and costly administrative processes that will fail to meaningfully improve safety and make new AI products worse. The bill focuses wrongly on developer size instead of model risk, while implementing excessive compliance burdens that fall hardest on smaller developers, threatening the competitive dynamism essential to American innovation.

Andreessen Horowitz CCIA