Regulating AI in a Fast-Moving World — Senator Scott Wiener on The RegulatingAI Podcast with Sanjay Puri

AI regulation is urgent. Senator Scott Wiener explains how California is leading, why federal action matters, and how to balance innovation with public safety.

WASHINGTON, DC, UNITED STATES, December 2, 2025 /EINPresswire.com/ --
Artificial intelligence is moving faster than any technology in human history—and the people shaping its future aren’t just engineers and founders. They’re lawmakers. On a recent episode of The RegulatingAI Podcast hosted by Sanjay Puri, President, Knowledge Networks, California Senator Scott Wiener offered a refreshingly grounded look at how we should govern AI without crushing innovation. His take? Regulation isn’t about slowing progress. It’s about making sure progress doesn’t blow up in our faces.

Why Regulation Can’t Wait
Wiener’s sense of urgency comes from lived experience. His family fled violence and repression. He lived through the HIV/AIDS crisis in San Francisco, when government inaction literally cost lives. For him, regulation isn’t abstract—it’s survival.

That’s why he looks at AI and sees both breathtaking possibility and genuine danger.

On the bright side, AI could cure diseases, fight climate change, predict and prevent wildfires, and turbocharge scientific discovery. But he’s equally clear-eyed about the risks: catastrophic attacks on the power grid, bio- and chemical weaponization, mass cybercrime, deepfakes, and rapid employment disruption. The tech world’s favorite line—“move fast and break things”—becomes a lot less cute when the thing that breaks is societal stability.

And historically, the U.S. hasn’t exactly been great at staying ahead of tech. We still have no federal data privacy law, no deepfake regulations, and almost no guardrails for social media. AI can’t be another “we’ll deal with it later” moment.

Why California Keeps Leading
If it sometimes feels like California is making rules for the entire tech world… it kind of is. With the world’s fourth or fifth largest economy and deep roots in the tech ecosystem, California has repeatedly stepped in where Congress hasn’t—on auto emissions, data privacy, and now AI.

Wiener walked through the state’s evolving strategy. First came SB 1047, a liability-focused bill that would have penalized companies for catastrophic failures. Industry hated it; the governor vetoed it.

But instead of packing up, Wiener pivoted. The result was SB 53, a transparency-driven bill requiring AI labs to disclose whether they’re using safety protocols for frontier models. It also introduced powerful whistleblower protections—because sometimes the people on the inside are the only ones who can spot a looming disaster. This wasn’t a retreat; it was a strategic regroup to ensure something strong passed.

The Federal vs. State Tug-of-War
In a perfect world, AI governance would be federal. One set of rules, applied everywhere. But Wiener warns that preempting states could backfire if national laws end up weak, unenforced, or vulnerable to political swings.

And with San Francisco serving as the “beating heart” of AI innovation, California can’t afford to sit around waiting for Congress to wake up.

The Coming Workforce Shock
Here’s where Wiener gets especially candid: AI could reshape the job market faster than anything in history. Past revolutions played out over generations. AI is compressing that into years—or months. Mishandled, it could spark economic hardship and social unrest. And desperate people are easy targets for opportunistic political “grifters.”

States can’t solve this alone. Only the federal government has the economic tools—tax, spend, redistribute—to cushion the blow.

A Philosophy of Balance
Wiener’s approach is simple: regulate where things are underregulated, and pull back where they’re overregulated. Housing? Too much red tape. Technology? Not nearly enough.

It’s not ideology. It’s problem-solving.

And if AI is going to transform the world, we’ll need a lot more of that.

Upasana Das
Knowledge Networks
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