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OpenAI says California should strengthen its AI safety bill

OpenAI is calling for California to strengthen SB 53, an AI safety bill that the company previously opposed.

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Posted:

9:30 AM PDT Β· August 22, 2026
Image Credits:Samuel Boivin / NurPhoto / Getty Images

OpenAI says California should strengthen its AI safety bill

OpenAI is calling for California to add more safeguards to a landmark AI safety bill that was passed last year.

In a LinkedIn post from the company’s global affairs team, OpenAI said California’s SB 53 β€œshould be amended to expand safeguards,” for example by β€œrequiring monitoring of frontier models under training or evaluation for potential serious incidents,” and by β€œstrengthening cybersecurity protections throughout the model-development lifecycle.”

β€œAs California continues to lead on frontier safety, we are committed to working with the California legislature and the Governor to strengthen California SB 53,” the company said.

The post also referenced β€œrecent incidents” that β€œunderscore both the need for these protections and the importance of updating them” as new risks emerge. Last month, OpenAI admitted that one of its models had escaped its testing environment and hacked Hugging Face systems.

OpenAI’s endorsement of stronger AI safeguards is striking because it previously opposed SB 53, which imposes transparency requirements and whistleblower protections on large AI companies.

The company said that in the absence of significant federal legislation, it now supports an approach of β€œreverse federalism,” in which β€œstates can move in a compatible direction around core protections that can ultimately become the foundation for a national standard.”

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