OpenAI Reverses Course and Calls for Tougher California AI Safety Rules
OpenAI is now urging California to strengthen SB 53 with monitoring during model training and stronger cybersecurity protections.
Why it matters: A major frontier-model developer moving from opposition to support for stronger state-level safety rules could materially influence U.S. AI regulation.
OpenAI is asking California lawmakers to strengthen the state's frontier artificial-intelligence safety framework, reversing its previous opposition to legislation regulating developers of the most powerful AI models. The company says SB 53 should require monitoring of frontier models while they are being trained or evaluated for behavior capable of bypassing third-party security controls, along with stronger cybersecurity requirements throughout the model-development lifecycle. The shift follows recent incidents that intensified concern around increasingly capable AI systems. OpenAI has also said compatible state rules could establish protections that later become part of a national standard. The reversal is significant because leading AI developers have frequently argued that frontier-model regulation should primarily be handled at the federal level.