Person
Gavin Newsom
As governor of California — home to most of the world's leading AI developers — Gavin Newsom has been a decisive figure in US frontier-AI regulation, since a state law there functions in practice as national regulation. In September 2024 he vetoed SB 1047, a bill that would have imposed safety protocols and shutdown requirements on the largest models, arguing it regulated model size rather than deployment risk while commissioning an alternative framework. A year to the day later he signed its narrower successor, SB 53, which requires large frontier developers to publish safety frameworks and report serious incidents. That measured approach — rejecting the broader bill, accepting the disclosure-focused one — has left him praised and criticised from both the safety and industry sides of the debate.
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Tracks
- Government & policy 4
- Culture & impact 1
- Safety & alignment 1
- Courts & copyright 1
California governor signs executive order on AI and workforce displacement
The order gives state agencies 180 days to review unemployment-insurance rules and directs new dashboards tracking AI's effect on jobs, without creating enforceable obligations on employers.
Government & policy · Culture & impact
California enacts SB 53
Newsom signed the narrower successor to the bill he had vetoed a year earlier, requiring frontier developers above set revenue and compute thresholds to publish safety frameworks and report incidents.
Government & policy · Safety & alignment · Courts & copyright
OpenAI sends letter urging Newsom to weaken California SB 53
OpenAI asked that developers complying with federal or EU frameworks be deemed automatically compliant with the state's rules; Newsom signed the bill anyway seven weeks later.
Government & policy
Newsom vetoes California's SB 1047
The bill would have required safety protocols and shutdown capability for models above a compute threshold; Newsom said it regulated size rather than risk.
Government & policy
Also mentioned in 2 entries
Referenced in passing — Gavin Newsom isn't the main subject of these.