Newsom Weighs AI Restrictions as Congress Prefers ‘Light Touch’

California Gov. Gavin Newsom faces a familiar dilemma in the coming weeks, as he looks to balance Silicon Valley’s dominance in AI against state lawmakers’ attempts to rein in potential harms from the sector.

Newsom (D) has until Oct. 13 to sign first-in-the-nation bills passed by the state legislature last week — such as one (SB 53) mandating disclosures of safety policies and another (SB 7) placing guardrails on AI usage in the workplace.

Newsom confronted similar choices last year, enacting more minor AI guardrails such as anti-deepfake protections, while vetoing a widely watched measure that ...