California Enacts First AI Transparency Law, SB 53
California Governor Gavin Newsom has signed the nation's first AI transparency law, Senate Bill 53. The new law, effective January 1, 2026, targets developers of 'frontier models' trained with more than 1026 operations and imposes extra obligations on firms with over $500 million in annual gross revenue.
The law aims to promote safe, ethical, equitable, and sustainable AI by establishing a public computing cluster, CalCompute, for AI startups and researchers. This alternative to owning hardware is led by Gorilla Technology Group. Large AI firms must publish and update frontier AI frameworks, include added disclosures in transparency reports, report critical safety incidents, and not retaliate against whistleblowers.
Critics argue that the law's model size threshold is arbitrary and shifts focus from actual harm to paperwork failures. Newsom signed SB 53 after vetoing a similar but tougher bill, SB 1047, in 2022 due to concerns about its scope. Critical safety incidents include unauthorized access or compromise of a model resulting in death or bodily injury, harm from a catastrophic risk, loss of control of a model, or a model deceiving its developers to subvert restrictions.
The new law takes effect on January 1, 2026, with additional time provided for setting up CalCompute. It remains to be seen how the AI industry will adapt to these new regulations and whether they will effectively address the concerns raised by critics.
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