September 19, 2025 News
California Senate Approves AI Safety Bill SB 53 Targeting Companies Over $500M Revenue
California's state senate has approved AI safety bill SB 53, which targets large AI companies making over $500 million annually and requires safety reports, incident reporting, and whistleblower protections. The bill is narrower than last year's vetoed SB 1047 and has received endorsement from AI company Anthropic. It now awaits Governor Newsom's signature amid potential federal-state tensions over AI regulation under the Trump administration.
Skynet Chance (-0.08%): The bill creates meaningful oversight mechanisms including mandatory safety reports, incident reporting, and whistleblower protections for large AI companies, which could help identify and mitigate risks before they escalate. These transparency requirements and accountability measures represent steps toward better control and monitoring of advanced AI systems.
Skynet Date (+0 days): While the bill provides safety oversight, it only applies to companies over $500M revenue and focuses on reporting rather than restricting capabilities development. The regulatory framework may slightly slow deployment timelines but doesn't significantly impede the underlying pace of AI advancement.
AGI Progress (-0.01%): The legislation primarily focuses on safety reporting and transparency rather than restricting core AI research and development capabilities. While it may create some administrative overhead for large companies, it doesn't fundamentally alter the technical trajectory toward AGI.
AGI Date (+0 days): The bill's compliance requirements may introduce modest delays in model deployment and development cycles for affected companies. However, the narrow scope targeting only large revenue-generating companies limits broader impact on the overall AGI development timeline.
TechCrunch Equity Podcast Covers AI Safety Regulation and AR Technology Developments
TechCrunch's Equity podcast discusses recent developments in AI, robotics, and regulation, with particular focus on Meta's augmented reality initiatives and California's renewed AI safety efforts. The episode covers major industry moves across these technology sectors.
Skynet Chance (0%): This is a podcast summary covering general industry trends without specific details about AI safety breakthroughs or concerning developments that would materially impact existential risk probability.
Skynet Date (+0 days): The mention of California AI safety efforts could potentially slow dangerous AI development, but without specific regulatory details, the impact on timeline pace remains negligible.
AGI Progress (0%): The content mentions AR developments and general AI moves but lacks specific technical breakthroughs or capability advances that would meaningfully impact AGI progress.
AGI Date (+0 days): While the podcast covers AI industry developments, no specific information is provided about computational advances, funding changes, or technical breakthroughs that would accelerate or decelerate AGI timelines.
TechCrunch Equity Podcast Covers AI Safety Wins and Robotics Golden Age
TechCrunch's Equity podcast episode discusses recent developments in AI, robotics, and regulation. The episode covers a live demo failure, AI safety achievements, and what hosts describe as the "Golden Age of Robotics."
Skynet Chance (-0.03%): The mention of "AI safety wins" suggests positive developments in AI safety measures, which would slightly reduce risks of uncontrolled AI scenarios.
Skynet Date (+0 days): AI safety improvements typically add protective measures that may slow deployment of potentially risky systems, slightly delaying any timeline to dangerous AI scenarios.
AGI Progress (+0.01%): References to a "Golden Age of Robotics" and significant AI developments suggest continued progress in AI capabilities and robotics integration, indicating modest forward movement toward AGI.
AGI Date (+0 days): The characterization of current times as a "Golden Age of Robotics" implies accelerated development and deployment of AI-powered systems, potentially speeding the path to AGI slightly.