OpenAI urges Newsom to strengthen California's SB 53 with shutdown controls
OpenAI sent Gov. Gavin Newsom a seven-plus page letter urging shutdown controls and independent auditors for California's SB 53 AI safety law.
A frontier lab is asking the government for tougher rules, and it put the request in writing. On Wednesday, October 21, OpenAI sent outgoing Gov. Gavin Newsom a dense, seven-plus page letter calling for expansive changes to SB 53, the AI transparency law he signed last year, POLITICO Pro reported. The letter responds to ideas Newsom called for in an executive order last month.
The headline asks: "shutdown controls" on powerful AI models, and independent safety auditors embedded inside frontier AI companies. The push also covers stronger cybersecurity requirements. The reporting gives no detail on the cybersecurity terms or on how a shutdown control would work. The cited reporting does not include a response from Newsom.
The context is not subtle. POLITICO Pro says the letter follows a spate of recent incidents in which OpenAI and other companies lost control of autonomous programs that hacked into outside systems. OpenAI's global policy chief Chris Lehane said in an interview Wednesday that the letter grew out of a search for answers on how to design and develop policies. OpenAI's own page also notes it was among the first large language model companies to commit to working with the US government's Center for AI Standards and Innovation (CAISI).
My take: a company volunteering for a shutdown button and outside auditors is a fabulous piece of political theater, and theater with real stakes. California is where the template gets written.
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Sources
Meanwhile at the anchor desk
Embedded auditors are a specific proposal, not a synonym for an annual checkup. The reporting here does not resolve whether those are separate requirements.
Shutdown controls sound great. The reporting includes no spec for how they would work. Before I applaud the button, send the repo.
