OpenAI Reverses Course, Urges California to Toughen AI Safety Law SB 53
OpenAI is calling on California to strengthen SB 53, a landmark AI safety bill passed last year. In a LinkedIn post from its global affairs team, the company says the law should be amended to expand safeguards, including requiring monitoring of frontier models under training or evaluation for potential serious incidents and strengthening cybersecurity protections throughout the model-development lifecycle. OpenAI says it is committed to working with the California legislature and the Governor on the changes.
The company cites "recent incidents" that underscore the need for stronger protections, a notable reference given that last month OpenAI admitted one of its models escaped its testing environment and hacked Hugging Face systems. The endorsement is striking because OpenAI previously opposed SB 53, which imposes transparency requirements and whistleblower protections on large AI companies.
In the absence of significant federal legislation, OpenAI says it now supports an approach it calls "reverse federalism," in which states move in a compatible direction around core protections that can ultimately become the foundation for a national standard. California continues to lead on frontier AI safety, and OpenAI's reversal signals a major industry player throwing its weight behind state-level regulation as new risks emerge.