SB 53, the AI security and transparency invoice that California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into regulation this week, is proof that state regulation doesn’t need to hinder AI progress.
So says Adam Billen, vp of public coverage at youth-led advocacy group Encode AI, on as we speak’s episode of Fairness.
“The fact is that coverage makers themselves know that now we have to do one thing, they usually know from engaged on 1,000,000 different points that there’s a technique to cross laws that genuinely does defend innovation — which I do care about — whereas ensuring that these merchandise are protected,” Billen advised Trendster.
At its core, SB 53 is a first-in-the-nation invoice that requires massive AI labs to be clear about their security and safety protocols — particularly round how they stop their fashions from catastrophic dangers, like getting used to commit cyberattacks on crucial infrastructure or construct bio-weapons. The regulation additionally mandates that corporations persist with these protocols, which can be enforced by the Workplace of Emergency Providers.
“Corporations are already doing the stuff that we ask them to do on this invoice,” Billen advised Trendster. “They do security testing on their fashions. They launch mannequin playing cards. Are they beginning to skimp in some areas at some corporations? Sure. And that’s why payments like this are vital.”
Billen additionally famous that some AI companies have a coverage round stress-free security requirements beneath aggressive stress. OpenAI, for instance, has publicly acknowledged that it might “regulate” its security necessities if a rival AI lab releases a high-risk system with out related safeguards. Billen argues that coverage can implement corporations’ current security guarantees, stopping them from chopping corners beneath aggressive or monetary stress.
Whereas public opposition to SB 53 was muted in comparability to its predecessor SB 1047, which Newsom vetoed final 12 months, the rhetoric in Silicon Valley and amongst most AI labs has been that nearly any AI regulation is anathema to progress and can in the end hinder the U.S. in its race to beat China.
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It’s why corporations like Meta, VCs like Andreessen Horowitz, and highly effective people like OpenAI president Greg Brockman are collectively pumping a whole bunch of hundreds of thousands into tremendous PACs to again pro-AI politicians in state elections. And it’s why those self same forces earlier this 12 months pushed for an AI moratorium that might have banned states from regulating AI for 10 years.
Encode AI ran a coalition of greater than 200 organizations to work to strike down the proposal, however Billen says the combat isn’t over. Senator Ted Cruz, who championed the moratorium, is trying a brand new technique to attain the identical purpose of federal preemption of state legal guidelines. In September, Cruz launched the SANDBOX Act, which might permit AI corporations to use for waivers to briefly bypass sure federal rules for as much as 10 years. Billen additionally anticipates a forthcoming invoice establishing a federal AI normal that might be pitched as a middle-ground answer however would in actuality override state legal guidelines.
He warned that narrowly scoped federal AI laws might “delete federalism for a very powerful know-how of our time.”
“For those who advised me SB 53 was the invoice that might substitute all of the state payments on every part associated to AI and all the potential dangers, I might let you know that’s in all probability not an excellent concept and that this invoice is designed for a selected subset of issues,” Billen stated.
Whereas he agrees that the AI race with China issues, and that policymakers must enact regulation that may assist American progress, he says killing state payments — which primarily concentrate on deepfakes, transparency, algorithmic discrimination, kids’s security, and governmental use of AI — isn’t the way in which to go about doing that.
“Are payments like SB 53 the factor that may cease us from beating China? No,” he stated. “I believe it is simply genuinely intellectually dishonest to say that that’s the factor that may cease us within the race.”
He added: “If the factor you care about is thrashing China within the race on AI — and I do care about that — then the belongings you would push for are stuff like export controls in Congress,” Billen stated. “You’ll be sure that American corporations have the chips. However that’s not what the trade is pushing for.”
Legislative proposals just like the Chip Safety Act purpose to stop the diversion of superior AI chips to China via export controls and monitoring units, and the present CHIPS and Science Act seeks to spice up home chip manufacturing. Nevertheless, some main tech corporations, together with OpenAI and Nvidia, have expressed reluctance or opposition to sure points of those efforts, citing issues about effectiveness, competitiveness, and safety vulnerabilities.
Nvidia has its causes — it has a powerful monetary incentive to proceed promoting chips to China, which has traditionally represented a good portion of its world income. Billen speculated that OpenAI might maintain again on chip export advocacy to remain within the good graces of essential suppliers like Nvidia.
There’s additionally been inconsistent messaging from the Trump administration. Three months after increasing an export ban on superior AI chips to China in April 2025, the administration reversed course, permitting Nvidia and AMD to promote some chips to China in alternate for 15% of the income.
“You see individuals on the Hill shifting in the direction of payments just like the Chip Safety Act that might put export controls on China,” Billen stated. “Within the meantime, there’s going to proceed to be this propping up of the narrative to kill state payments which might be truly fairly mild robust.”
Billen added that SB 53 is an instance of democracy in motion — of trade and policymakers working collectively to get to a model of a invoice that everybody can agree on. It’s “very ugly and messy,” however “that means of democracy and federalism is the whole basis of our nation and our financial system, and I hope that we’ll preserve doing that efficiently.”
“I believe SB 53 is likely one of the greatest proof factors that that may nonetheless work,” he stated.
