Comment by David Beier

We need strong, explicit federal regulatory standards to assure public safety. In the short term, state measures such as California’s Senate Bill 53—introduced by State Senator Scott Wiener and signed by Governor Gavin Newsom—offer a good start. These legally binding safety checkpoints are far less onerous than current European laws and more focused on large AI systems than an earlier bill vetoed by Governor Newsom. Because this approach has the force of law, it is preferable to voluntary industry standards. To be clear, these state-based AI safety laws are temporary and could be preempted by a directionally similar federal law on this topic.