TechCrunch — AI · August 22, 2026 · 2 min read

OpenAI says California should strengthen its AI safety bill

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In Brief

Posted:

9:30 AM PDT · August 22, 2026

**Image Credits:**Samuel Boivin / NurPhoto / Getty Images

Anthony Ha

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 “should be amended to expand safeguards,” for example by “requiring monitoring of frontier models under training or evaluation for potential serious incidents,” and by “strengthening cybersecurity protections throughout the model-development lifecycle.”

“As 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 “recent incidents” that “underscore 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 “reverse federalism,” in which “states can move in a compatible direction around core protections that can ultimately become the foundation for a national standard.”

Topics

AI, Government & Policy, OpenAI, sb 53