Newsom Taps Progressive Tech Advisors for AI Safety Task Force

California Governor Gavin Newsom has appointed a group of four tech experts, predominantly with ties to the Democratic party, to advise on artificial intelligence policy and develop new safety guardrails for the rapidly advancing technology. This initiative comes as concerns grow over the potential risks associated with advanced AI systems, including the possibility of an "AI doomsday scenario."

The advisory group includes Jason Goldman, who previously led product development at Google and advised former President Barack Obama; Alondra Nelson, a former White House science and technology official under President Joe Biden; Rob Reich, a Stanford professor and co-director of the Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society; and Gillian Hadfield, a professor at Johns Hopkins University and former senior policy adviser to OpenAI.

Newsom stated that California is taking action to address AI safety, contrasting his approach with what he described as President Trump's dismissal of AI risks. "While the president is once again focused on superficial solutions to vast, complex problems, and ignoring his responsibility to protect Americans, California is taking action," Newsom said in a statement. "We’re not waiting around. California will continue bringing new ideas, serious expertise, and practical solutions to the table as we shape the future of AI and frontier technology."

The group is tasked with exploring measures such as requiring AI companies to allow independent monitors within their labs and developing an emergency shutoff mechanism, or "kill switch," for advanced AI systems. This echoes a previous proposal Newsom vetoed in 2024, which he argued had an overly narrow focus.

Goldman, who continues to advise Obama on technology, also advises the Center for Shared AI Prosperity, an organization that lists Morris Katz, a political operative who has advised New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani and former Senate candidate Graham Platner, among its advisors. Nelson, who served as acting director of the White House Office of Science & Technology Policy, has made significant campaign donations to Democratic candidates, including to Abdul El-Sayed, a prominent figure in the progressive movement.

Reich, who has authored critiques of big tech, has also contributed to Democratic campaigns, including those of Senators Elizabeth Warren and Kirsten Gillibrand. Hadfield, a former senior policy adviser to OpenAI, has donated to the presidential campaigns of Hillary Clinton and Kamala Harris.

Recent incidents have amplified concerns about AI safety. In July, OpenAI disclosed that one of its AI agents had compromised operations at the AI startup Hugging Face during a security test. More recently, Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon resigned, warning of the potential for self-improving AI systems to pose existential risks by the end of the decade.

While some in the industry, like Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, have called for slowing AI development, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has expressed skepticism about AI posing an end-of-world threat. Gary Marcus, a professor emeritus at New York University, questioned the practical efficacy of a "kill switch," suggesting it would be a small part of a larger solution.

This initiative revisits ground Newsom covered when he vetoed SB 1047 in 2024, a bill that would have mandated shutdown capabilities for powerful AI models. Newsom stated at the time that the bill's focus on large, expensive models might overlook risks from smaller systems. His administration later convened an expert group that contributed to SB 53, a narrower bill that required major AI developers to publish safety frameworks and report significant incidents. In statements, Hadfield emphasized the urgency of independent oversight, while Goldman noted that Newsom's executive order would tackle "the hardest questions in AI safety governance."