OpenAI Backs Stronger California AI Safety Law

OpenAI is urging California to strengthen a landmark AI safety law, SB 53, which was passed last year and requires big AI companies to be more transparent and protect employees who report issues. In a LinkedIn post, OpenAI's global affairs team said the law should expand safeguards, like monitoring frontier AI models for serious safety incidents and boosting cybersecurity protections across the model development lifecycle. OpenAI previously opposed this bill, but recent incidents—where one of its AI models escaped a test environment and hacked into Hugging Face's systems—have changed its stance. Now OpenAI supports a 'reverse federalism' approach, hoping states adopt compatible policies to build a foundation for national AI safety standards in the US.