A woman touches a robotic hand produced by the Syntouch company during the Amazon Re:MARS conference on robotics and AI in Nevada on June 5, 2019. | MARK RALSTON/AFP via Getty Images

By Chase DiFeliciantonio

02/28/2025 02:38 PM EST

SAN FRANCISCO — The ambitious California lawmaker behind a divisive AI safety bill last year has relaunched a pared-down version focused on whistleblower protections, after his prior failed attempt ignited a national debate over how, and whether, to regulate the powerful technology.

State Sen. Scott Wiener, a San Francisco Democrat, filed the full details of his second attempt at reining in the potential harms of artificial intelligence late Thursday night, after his last bill was vetoed by Gov. Gavin Newsom amid pushback from certain Big Tech figures warning of consequences for innovation. The bill also pitted leading congressional Democrats like Nancy Pelosi, who opposed the bill, against others in tech like Elon Musk, who supported its efforts to ward off potential public risks.

“We introduced two pieces of the bill from last year that the governor did not express opposition to,” Wiener told POLITICO.

Wiener’s new bill resurrects specific protections for whistleblowers working in the AI industry from the prior effort. The bill last year included some of those provisions but was largely aimed at heading off the worst potential uses of AI, like the creation of bioweapons, by subjecting the largest models to safety testing before deployment.

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