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 right this moment’s episode of Fairness.
“The reality is that policy makers themselves know that we have to do something, and they know from working on a million other issues that there is a way to pass legislation that genuinely does protect innovation — which I do care about — while making sure that these products are safe,” Billen advised TechCrunch.
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 forestall their fashions from catastrophic dangers, like getting used to commit cyberattacks on crucial infrastructure or construct bio-weapons. The regulation additionally mandates that firms stick with these protocols, which shall be enforced by the Workplace of Emergency Providers.
“Companies are already doing the stuff that we ask them to do in this bill,” Billen advised TechCrunch. “They do safety testing on their models. They release model cards. Are they starting to skimp in some areas at some companies? Yes. And that’s why bills like this are important.”
Billen additionally famous that some AI companies have a coverage round enjoyable security requirements beneath aggressive strain. OpenAI, for instance, has publicly acknowledged that it could “adjust” its security necessities if a rival AI lab releases a high-risk system with out comparable safeguards. Billen argues that coverage can implement firms’ current security guarantees, stopping them from slicing corners beneath aggressive or monetary strain.
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 just about any AI regulation is anathema to progress and can finally hinder the U.S. in its race to beat China.
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It’s why firms like Meta, VCs like Andreessen Horowitz, and highly effective people like OpenAI president Greg Brockman are collectively pumping lots of of tens of millions 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 firms to use for waivers to briefly bypass sure federal laws for as much as 10 years. Billen additionally anticipates a forthcoming invoice establishing a federal AI customary that might be pitched as a middle-ground resolution however would in actuality override state legal guidelines.
He warned that narrowly scoped federal AI laws might “delete federalism for the most important technology of our time.”
“If you told me SB 53 was the bill that would replace all the state bills on everything related to AI and all of the potential risks, I would tell you that’s probably not a very good idea and that this bill is designed for a particular subset of things,” 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 best way to go about doing that.
“Are bills like SB 53 the thing that will stop us from beating China? No,” he stated. “I think it is just genuinely intellectually dishonest to say that that is the thing that will stop us in the race.”
He added: “If the thing you care about is beating China in the race on AI — and I do care about that — then the things you would push for are stuff like export controls in Congress,” Billen stated. “You would make sure that American companies have the chips. But that’s not what the industry is pushing for.”
Legislative proposals just like the Chip Safety Act goal to stop the diversion of superior AI chips to China via export controls and monitoring gadgets, and the present CHIPS and Science Act seeks to spice up home chip manufacturing. Nonetheless, some main tech firms, together with OpenAI and Nvidia, have expressed reluctance or opposition to sure features of those efforts, citing considerations about effectiveness, competitiveness, and safety vulnerabilities.
Nvidia has its causes — it has a robust monetary incentive to proceed promoting chips to China, which has traditionally represented a good portion of its international 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 change for 15% of the income.
“You see people on the Hill moving towards bills like the Chip Security Act that would put export controls on China,” Billen stated. “In the meantime, there’s going to continue to be this propping up of the narrative to kill state bills that are actually quite light tough.”
Billen added that SB 53 is an instance of democracy in motion — of business 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 process of democracy and federalism is the entire foundation of our country and our economic system, and I hope that we will keep doing that successfully.”
“I think SB 53 is one of the best proof points that that can still work,” he stated.
