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California SB-53: Transparency in Frontier Artificial Intelligence Act (TFAIA)

CA-SB-53 · US · binding regulation

Source: https://policywindow.org/wiki/ca-sb-53

Generated 2026-06-17T14:09:50 UTC

Summary

SB 53 (TFAIA), signed Sept. 29, 2025 (Chapter 138), is the first US state law expressly regulating 'frontier' AI; it succeeds the vetoed SB 1047 with a transparency-and-disclosure design rather than pre-deployment liability. It applies to 'frontier developers' training foundation models above a 10^26 FLOP compute threshold, with heightened duties on 'large frontier developers' (affiliate-group revenue > $500M): publish a frontier AI framework and pre-deployment transparency reports, report critical safety incidents to the Office of Emergency Services (15 days; 24 hours for imminent danger), and whistleblower protections. Core developer obligations took effect Jan. 1, 2026; CalOES annual reporting and the CalCompute consortium report are due Jan. 1, 2027. Enforced by the Attorney General with civil penalties up to $1,000,000 per violation.

At a glance

Adopted: 2025-09-29
Effective: 2026-01-01
Status: in force
Primary source: Cal. Stats. 2025, ch. 138 (SB 53); Bus. & Prof. Code §§ 22757.10–22757.16; Gov. Code § 11546.8; Lab. Code §§ 1107–1107.2
Source URL: https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260SB53

How to cite this article

APA

Policy Window. (2025). California SB-53: Transparency in Frontier Artificial Intelligence Act (TFAIA) [Wiki article — Instrument]. https://policywindow.org/wiki/ca-sb-53

Chicago

Policy Window. 2025. "California SB-53: Transparency in Frontier Artificial Intelligence Act (TFAIA)." Wiki article (Instrument). https://policywindow.org/wiki/ca-sb-53.

Harvard

Policy Window (2025) 'California SB-53: Transparency in Frontier Artificial Intelligence Act (TFAIA)', Wiki article — Instrument, available at: https://policywindow.org/wiki/ca-sb-53.

OSCOLA

Policy Window, 'California SB-53: Transparency in Frontier Artificial Intelligence Act (TFAIA)' (Wiki article — Instrument, 2025) <https://policywindow.org/wiki/ca-sb-53> accessed [date].

BibTeX

@misc{policywindow-ca-sb-53,
  title  = {California SB-53: Transparency in Frontier Artificial Intelligence Act (TFAIA)},
  author = {Policy Window},
  year   = {2025},
  howpublished = {Cal. Stats. 2025, ch. 138 (SB 53); Bus. & Prof. Code §§ 22757.10–22757.16; Gov. Code § 11546.8; Lab. Code §§ 1107–1107.2},
  url    = {https://policywindow.org/wiki/ca-sb-53},
  note   = {Primary source: https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260SB53}
}