The California governor told POLITICO he plans to take further action on AI safety before leaving office.
SAN FRANCISCO — Gavin Newsom told POLITICO he plans to take further action on AI safety before leaving office, raising the possibility of a special California legislative session amid escalating concerns about the technology’s potential risks to humanity.
His plans, he said, could take the form of a special session, executive action or steps by state agencies under their existing authority.
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“Is there a legislative play? Is there a framework around a special session in that respect? Is there executive action?” Newsom said, adding he was also looking at “authority within existing agencies that have oversight authority based on laws, rules, and regulations.”
“We’re looking at across the spectrum,” the governor said. “We’re looking to see what we can do in the next few weeks — days, weeks, and months.”
The California governor and likely presidential candidate described the car he was riding in during a Wednesday evening call as strewn with dozens of pages of ideas and memos focused on the issue.
“After that Hugging Face incident weeks ago, we were on this,” Newsom said, referring to the July incident in which rogue OpenAI programs executed an autonomous cyberattack. He said he has been in discussion with state legislative leaders, tech safety advocates and those representing AI labs, among others, in crafting a response.
Any additional move by California, the global locus of the tech and AI industry, could have major national and even global repercussions.
Newsom said he felt spurred to act in part because of “the tendency of the Trump administration to do absolutely nothing.”
His remarks come amid deep fissures in the industry — and in Washington — over how to regulate the industry, and with President Donald Trump repeatedly dismissing concerns about AI. In California, Newsom said, “We’re mindful that we need to continue to iterate and that we must continue to lead.”
Newsom’s signature last year on California’s first-in-the-nation AI transparency and incident reporting law set off a cross-country tour of copycat lawmaking in states like New York and Illinois. And last week he signed two AI safety bills to regulate the kind of third-party safety checks now being called for by the likes of OpenAI and Anthropic.
HEY EVERYONE LISTEN UP!!!
THE IDIOTS IN CHARGE IN SACRAMENTO WHO HAVE HAD MANY WARNINGS ABOUT AI COMPUTING ARE NOW GOING TO HAVE SPECIAL SESSION!!!
Think about it you voted for these idiots. They have now been overtaken by the Communist leaning DSA.
They are just now worried about AI????? These supposed environmentalist are facing hard opposition in cities because of water and energy use.
BUT DON’T WORRY FOLKS, US COMMUNIST FAVORING WILL TAKE CARE OF YOU. DEPEND ON GOVERNMENT AND THE MASSIVE DEFICITS THE STATE IS RUNNING.
GEEZZZZ
You vote for them?
Really you must live in a bubble. Do you look at ANY current news? In case you missed it, that fat orange felon started a war with Iran that is totally screwing the USA AND the world with higher gas prices.
If you can’t comprehend this let me spell it out for you. Higher fuel prices mean higher costs for food, water, electricity and just about anything that gets shipped by truck, train or plane. This cost is DIRECTLY passed on to the consumers like you and me. All of those orange azzholes donors, i.e the oil companies, his family and his billionaire friends make RECORD profits screwing people like you and me. The result is you and me pay more for everything because of HIS actions.
Also add to all that with the $40 TRILLION debt old stinky has amassed and where do you think all those TAXPAYER monies go?
I know you have a hard-on with the dems but come on, California is small potatoes compared to the POTUS and all his grift and corruption on full display. The blue wave is coming and the GQP will be nutured. Chew on that.
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