Scott Wiener, author of California's AI safety bills, wins Pelosi's seat and wants a federal AI regulator
Hours after his win, Wiener called for whistleblower protections, audits and a kill switch requirement, and said he opposes federal rules that would override state AI laws.
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The California state senator behind the country's most prominent AI safety bills is headed to Congress. Scott Wiener won a close race for Nancy Pelosi's open San Francisco seat, and in an interview with Grace Huckins of MIT Technology Review a few hours after the result, he was already talking about regulating frontier AI.
His record
Wiener wrote SB 1047 in 2024, which would have been the first real frontier AI law in the US before Governor Gavin Newsom vetoed it. He followed with SB 53, a lighter bill Newsom signed. Both have inspired proposed federal legislation.
What he wants in Washington
- A strong federal AI regulator; he points to a proposal from Representative Ro Khanna to create one.
- Protection for whistleblowers, mandatory testing and audits, and a required kill switch.
- Congress using its oversight powers on the AI labs.
- No sweeping federal law that overrides the states' AI rules, as some proposals in Congress would do. States, he argues, can move faster than Congress.
He'd like a seat on an AI select committee if Democrats create one, an idea they've floated since September.
The urgency
Wiener cited a report from the nonprofit METR, released the day before, that many read as evidence Anthropic had reached recursive self-improvement, where AI meaningfully speeds up its own progress. He used the phrase repeatedly and said Congress isn't moving before year's end, as he'd hoped.
The money question
His campaign got more than $3 million from Public First Action, a pro-regulation nonprofit heavily funded by Anthropic. Opponents said that made him too close to the industry. Wiener calls that cynical, saying the group backed him because he actually passed AI rules over Big Tech's objections.
He says he's only cautiously optimistic about Congress, given its record on tech and President Trump's dismissal of catastrophic AI risk as a "hoax." He also reads this week's data center ballot wins, 40 of 41 measures, as mostly about local bills and water, not AI risk.
Scoreboard update: Humans +1. A lawmaker who already passed AI rules gets a vote in Congress.
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