California’s first partner pushes to regulate AI as Trump threatens to forbid regulations

California First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom recently held a meeting for Silicon Valley’s tech sisters (a group of the Golden State’s smartest, most powerful women) brainstorming ways to regulate artificial intelligence in what might be among the sweatiest nightmare scenarios of all.

Regulation is the last thing this California-dominated industry wants, and a lot of money has been spent in both state and federal capitals to avoid it — including funding President Trump’s investment. new ballroom. Are the arrangements of a group of ladies and many mothers such that they provide distant benefit to our children when it comes to concerns?

I’ll let you understand how popular this might be with the Elon Musks, Peter Thiels and Mark Zuckerbergs of the world.

But as Siebel Newsom said, “If a platform reaches a child, it has a responsibility to protect that child. Period. The safety of our children can never come second.”

Accepted.

Siebel Newsom’s pressure on California to do more to regulate AI coincides with Trump threatening to block states from regulating the technology and accelerating a national effort that will open America’s coffers to AI moguls for decades to come.

Right now, the United States is facing its own nightmare scenario: The most powerful and world-changing technology we have ever seen in our lifetimes is being developed and released under virtually no rules or restrictions other than those chosen by men seeking personal gain from the outcome.

Simply put, the current plan seems to be that these tech barons will change the world as they see fit to make money for themselves, and we as taxpayers will pay them to do it.

“We completely lose our way when decisions are made primarily based on power and profit rather than care and responsibility, and I believe we have lost our way given the current alignment between tech giants and the federal government,” Siebel Newsom said.

To recap the progress so far, Trump recently tried to sneak a 10-year ban on states’ ability to regulate the industry into the ludicrously dubbed “Big Beautiful Bill,” but that bill was withdrawn by a bipartisan group in the Senate — an early indication of how provocative this issue is.

Faced with this unexpected blockade, Trump threatened to sign a deal. mysterious executive order It cripples states’ ability to regulate AI and seeks to withhold funds from those who try it.

Simultaneously, the most cowardly and cowardly among Republican congressmen have proposed adding a 10-year ban to the defense policy bill that will almost certainly pass. Of course, Congress has also refused to move forward on any meaningful federal regulation, while tech CEOs including Trump’s frenemy Musk, Apple’s Tim Cook, Meta’s Zuckerberg and many more have been weighing in on the issue at glitzy events at the White House.

That may be why Trump declared this week:Creation MissionAn executive order that would apparently take the government’s unimaginably large research efforts across disciplines and pour them into some kind of artificial intelligence model:will revolutionize the way scientific research is conducted.”

While I’m sure nothing could go wrong in this scenario, that’s not actually the part that’s immediately alarming. Here it is: The project will be overseen by Trump science and technology policy adviser Michael Kratsios, who has no science or engineering degree but was previously one of Thiel’s top executives and the former head of another artificial intelligence company that worked on war-related projects with the Pentagon.

Kratsios is credited as one of the main reasons why Trump embraced his tech brethren with such admiration during his second term. Creation will almost certainly mean huge government contracts for these private sector “partners” and fuel the AI ​​boom (or bubble) with taxpayer dollars.

Siebel Newsom’s message through all of this is that we are not helpless — and California, as the home of many of these companies and the world’s fourth-largest economy in its own right, should have a say in how this technology advances and make sure it does so in a way that benefits and protects us all.

“California is uniquely positioned to lead efforts to demonstrate how innovation and responsibility can go hand in hand,” he said. “I’ve always believed that stronger guardrails are actually good for business in the long run. Safer technology means better outcomes for consumers and greater consumer trust and loyalty.”

But as Siebel Newsom’s husband knows, the pressure to buckle under the power of these corporations is intense.

Gov. Gavin Newsom has spent the last few years trying to needle state legislation that offers some form of oversight while allowing for innovations that keep California and the United States rightfully competitive on the global front. The tech industry has spent millions on lobbying, legal battles, and pressure campaigns to dilute even the best-intentioned efforts; He even threatened to leave the state if the rules went into effect.

Last year, the industry failed to stop Senate Bill 53, the landmark bill signed by Newsom. This is a key transparency measure around “frontier” AI models that requires companies to have safety and security protocols in place and report known “catastrophic” risks, such as when those models show tendencies toward behavior that could kill more than 50 people — which believe it or not.

But the industry has managed to stall other efforts. Newsom vetoed Senate Bill 7, which would have required employers to notify workers when using AI in hiring and promotions; and House Bill 1064, which prohibits helpful chatbot operators from making these AI systems available to minors unless they can prove they won’t do things like encourage children to harm themselves, which these chatbots have done.

Still, California (along with New York and several other states) has continued to move forward, and the governor, speaking at Siebel Newsom’s event, said during the last session: “We’ve done several experiments on this and have made tremendous progress.”

He promised more.

“We have agency. We can shape the future,” he said. “We have a unique responsibility with respect to these technology tools because this is the center of that universe.”

If Newsom continues to move forward, much of it will be thanks to Siebel Newsom and women like her who continue to push back.

In fact, it was another powerful mother, First Lady Melania Trump, who forced the federal government to take a small action this year. “Downloading Act”This requires tech companies to quickly remove non-consensual sexually explicit images. I really doubt that her husband would have signed this bill if it wasn’t for her insistence.

So, if we’re lucky, the efforts of women like Siebel Newsom may translate into the strong mental health needed to contain the fraternity’s fantasies of world domination.

Because despite their best efforts, their tech siblings are not yet fully powerful, and they are certainly not immune to the power of mothers.