The author of SB 1047 introduces a new AI bill in California | TechCrunch

ai-regulationsb-53californiaai-safetywhistleblowercalcompute

Abstraction: California SB 53 creates AI whistleblower protections and public compute cluster

Key points:

California state Senator Scott Wiener introduced SB 53 (March 2025), a scaled-back successor to the vetoed SB 1047, focusing on its least controversial provisions.
SB 53 would protect employees at frontier AI labs (targeting companies like OpenAI, Anthropic, xAI) from retaliation if they report AI systems posing "critical risk" — defined as foreseeable risk of death/serious injury to 100+ people or $1B+ in damages.
The bill also establishes CalCompute, a public cloud computing cluster for researchers and startups, governed by UC representatives and public/private researchers.
Governor Newsom vetoed SB 1047 in September 2024, calling it not the best approach; SB 1047 had aimed to prevent catastrophic events from very large AI models (cyberattacks >$500M, loss of life).
Political headwinds in 2025: VP J.D. Vance signaled at Paris AI Action Summit that the US prioritizes AI innovation over safety; "AI doom" movement has lost ground.
California passed 18 AI-related bills in 2024; SB 53 must pass both legislative chambers before reaching Newsom's desk.

Connections: Scott Wiener · Openai · Anthropic · AI Safety · AI Regulation · AI Policy