OpenAI wants California to strengthen its newly passed AI safety law

OpenAI wants California to toughen up the AI safety law it helped get across the finish line less than a year ago.

In a post from OpenAI's Global Affairs team on LinkedIn, the company laid out its case for amending SB 53, the Transparency in Frontier Artificial Intelligence Act, which Governor Gavin Newsom signed into law back in Sept. 2025. OpenAI says the law needs new teeth, specifically, requirements that frontier AI models be monitored during training or evaluation for signs that they could bypass a third party's security controls or obtain confidential information they shouldn't have.

The company is also pushing for beefed-up cybersecurity across the entire model development process, aimed at preventing AI systems from circumventing their internal safeguards.

For context, SB 53 was already a pretty significant piece of legislation when it passed. According to the Governor's office, the law requires large frontier AI developers to publish safety frameworks, establishes a formal channel for reporting critical safety incidents to California's Office of Emergency Services, protects whistleblowers, and grants the state Attorney General the authority to levy civil penalties on companies that don't comply.