The California AI bill is back, and it lost its teeth

Equity

TechCrunch

Founders, Silicon Valley, Finance, Ipo, Vc, Technology, Business News, Startups, Business, Venture Capital, News, Stock Market, Entrepreneurship, Techcrunch

4.2 • 365 Ratings

🗓️ 7 March 2025

⏱️ 27 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

California’s most controversial AI safety bill of 2024 might be dead, but its author isn't backing down. State Senator Scott Weiner is back with SB 53, a new AI bill that strips away the most debated parts of last year’s failed legislation while keeping key whistleblower protections and a public cloud computing initiative called CalCompute. With the AI industry and even the federal government shifting away from AI safety regulation in favor of innovation, will the bill gain any traction? Today, on TechCrunch’s Equity podcast, hosts Kirsten Korosec, Max Zeff and Anthony Ha are unpacking the latest moves in AI regulation along with the week’s top stories in tech and startups. Listen to the full episode to hear about: What Kirsten is hoping to see on the ground at SXSW this year CoreWeave’s IPO, and why the founders’ latest moves are raising eyebrows. As Kirsten put it: there's nothing more fun than diving into an S-1 Ramp’s impressive growth, and how the fintech more than doubled its annualized revenue to $700M Alexis Ohanian and Kevin Rose’s team-up, and if the pair can really bring back Digg Which founders are raising in 2025, and why deep tech has some investors feeling optimistic Equity will be back next week, so stay tuned! Equity is TechCrunch’s flagship podcast, produced by Theresa Loconsolo, and posts every Wednesday and Friday. Subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod. For the full episode transcript, for those who prefer reading over listening, check out our full archive of episodes here. Credits: Equity is produced by Theresa Loconsolo with editing by Kell. We’d also like to thank TechCrunch’s audience development team. Thank you so much for listening, and we'll talk to you next time. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	This episode is presented by Baker Tilly, a top 10 accounting tax and advisory firm.
0:17.3	Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch's flagship podcast about the business of startups.
0:22.8	Today is Friday, March 7th. I'm Kirsten Koresak, transportation editor at TechCrunch.
0:28.2	I'm Max Zheff, senior reporter at TechCrunch. And I'm Anthony Ha, weekend editor at TechCrunch.
0:33.5	So, Anthony, this weekend, are you going to be watching all the things happening at South By?
0:39.9	Because you know, I'm going to be there.
0:41.4	I will be watching whatever you're doing, Kirsten.
0:44.7	In general, it does seem like South By has kind of reentered the kind of startup and tech conversation.
0:49.9	I mean, when I was first starting out as a reporter many, many, many, many years ago, it was like the place to be, felt like it kind of fell off and was kind of, yeah, just not as exciting.
0:59.1	And it seems like in the last few years it's come back.
1:01.2	Is that what you've seen?
1:02.3	Yeah, I mean, I've been going there for years now.
1:05.0	I'm moderating a panel.
1:06.7	Another one of our reporters, Rebecca Boulon, is going to be moderating too. COVID really kind of killed the vibes there.
1:14.9	And then, of course, don't forget, two years ago was the Silicon Valley Bank sort of eruption that happened during Southby, which every year there's like something crazy that happens in the tech world that it all filters through to South by.
1:29.6	This year, I think it's going to be two things. AI, competition with another conference,
1:35.2	Human X, which is happening around the same time, and Robotaxies, because Robotaxies are in
1:41.8	Austin officially. So it's going to be interesting to see what people are talking about,
1:46.8	but AI, I think, is going to be like the big, big thing. Do you guys remember there ever being
1:51.6	another conference that happens at the same time as South by Southwest? Like, I feel like Human X is
1:56.0	really coming for the King's Crown here. I can't think of anything. No, I can't. But, I mean, the thing that South By has going for it is it's not just a tech conference.
2:05.4	It's really culture.
	...

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