Anthropic endorses California’s AI safety bill, SB 53

Summary

On Monday, Anthropic announced an official endorsement of SB 53, a California bill from state senator Scott Wiener that would impose first-in-the-nation transparency requirements on the world’s largest AI model developers. Anthropic’s endorsement marks a rare and major win for SB 53, at a time when major tech groups like the Consumer Technology Association (CTA) and Chamber for Progress are lobbying against the bill. “While we believe that frontier AI safety is best addressed at the federal level instead of a patchwork of state regulations, powerful AI advancements won’t wait for consensus in Washington,” said Anthropic in a blog post. “The question isn’t whether we need AI governance — it’s whether we’ll develop it thoughtfully today or reactively tomorrow. SB 53 offers a solid path toward the former.” If passed, SB 53 would require frontier AI model developers like OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and xAI to develop safety frameworks, as well as release public safety and security reports before deploying powerful AI models. The bill would also establish whistleblower protections to employees who come forward with safety concerns. Senator Wiener’s bill specifically focuses on limiting AI models from contributing to “catastrophic risks,” which the bill defines as the death of at least 50 people or more than a billion dollars in damages. SB 53 focuses on the extreme side of AI risk — limiting AI models from being used to provide expert-level assistance in the creation of biological weapons or being used in cyberattacks — rather than more near-term concerns like AI deepfakes or sycophancy. California’s Senate approved a prior version of SB 53 but still needs to hold a final vote on the bill before it can advance to the governor’s desk. Governor Gavin Newsom has stayed silent on the bill so far, although he vetoed Senator Weiner’s last AI safety bill, SB 1047. Bills regulating frontier AI model developers have faced significant pushback from both Silicon Valley and the Trump...