Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-Calif.) has a message for anyone comforted by the White House's hands-off approach to artificial intelligence: it should not comfort you at all.
On Wednesday, Newsom took to X to criticize President Donald Trump's approach to AI, warning that limited federal oversight could leave the rapidly evolving technology without sufficient safeguards. He shared a clip of himself discussing AI regulation alongside a blunt caption.
"What we saw from the White House yesterday was bullshit," he wrote. "It's like Big Pharma saying we don't need the FDA. Donald Trump's 'let it rip' approach to AI is RECKLESS."
In the clip, Newsom compared AI oversight to the regulations governing pharmaceuticals and airlines, arguing that industries should not be left to determine on their own whether government safeguards are necessary. It's a familiar analogy: we don't let drugmakers decide whether they need the FDA, and we don't let airlines decide whether planes need to be inspected. Newsom's point is that AI, whatever else it is, is not obviously the exception.
"What I heard in Washington, D.C., yesterday was bullshit. That should scare the hell out of everybody," he said.
He argued that California must continue strengthening its AI regulations in the absence of stronger federal leadership.
"We have to do a lot more in the absence of federal leadership, which they doubled down on yesterday," Newsom said. "And so it only reinforces the imperative for us to accelerate our timelines."
Newsom said an independent group established through his executive order would review AI-related issues, with California planning to implement its recommendations once the review is complete.
Newsom Highlights AI Accord Typo
Newsom also shared the White House's announcement of the "Accord on Super Intelligence" on X, captioning it "The Golden Age of Super Intelligence." The scare quotes were doing a lot of work there.
The image he shared highlighted a spelling error in the document, which referred to the "United States" as "Unites States" beneath Trump's signature. A small thing, sure, but when you're branding something the Golden Age of Super Intelligence, the bar for proofreading gets a little higher.
Trump Unveiled AI Safety Pact
On Tuesday, Trump brought leaders of major AI companies together around a voluntary safety pact that called for independent audits, stronger internal controls and board-level oversight of advanced AI systems.
Trump released the White House Accord on Super Intelligence, also called a "Joint Commitment on Frontier Responsibilities," after hosting technology executives at the White House.
The agreement was signed by Trump and Alphabet Inc. (GOOG) CEO Sundar Pichai, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, Meta Platforms, Inc. (META) CEO Mark Zuckerberg, OpenAI President Greg Brockman, Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SPCX) xAI CEO Elon Musk and Nvidia Corp. (NVDA) CEO Jensen Huang.
Trump described the pact as "morally binding" and said companies should take responsibility for policing their own AI development.
That phrase, "morally binding," is doing a lot of heavy lifting. It is not legally binding, which is rather the point. The companies involved are promising to audit themselves, control themselves and oversee themselves at the board level, which is roughly the regulatory equivalent of a restaurant posting its own health grade.
Newsom's argument is that this is exactly backwards. In his framing, the industries building the most powerful technology in human history should not get to decide whether anyone needs to watch them do it. And with the federal government stepping back, California, home to most of the companies in question, is stepping forward.
Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by MarketDash editors.
