Senator Padilla Condemns OpenAI Effort to Stifle Chatbot Protections and Announces Legislation to Broaden AI Safeguards
SACRAMENTO – Today, State Senator Steve Padilla (D-San Diego) issued the following statement in response to OpenAI’s announced ballot initiative designed to limit additional legal protections from abusive and predatory AI chatbots:
“I am disgusted to see Big Tech’s latest attempt to cut off and limit commonsense regulation of dangerous AI chatbots. This initiative is cynically designed to hijack my legislation, Senate Bill 243, which was a starting place to protect children, and makes it exceptionally difficult to modify or strengthen that law.
By freezing these protections into the Constitution, this initiative is attempting to halt all additional efforts to protect children and others from dangerous AI chatbot tools. Silicon Valley failed in their attempt to have Congress preempt state laws regulating AI tools, so now they’re trying to freeze future efforts here in California to enact safety regulations through this deceptive initiative.
Senate Bill 243 was a critical first step towards making AI chatbots safer but was always meant to be exactly that – a first step. That is why I have introduced language into Senate Bill 300 this week to strengthen the law and continue our work to protect the public from dangerous chatbots.”
Senator Padilla’s Senate Bill 243, the first-of-its-kind law in the nation, requires chatbot operators to implement critical, reasonable, and attainable safeguards around interactions with artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots and provide families with a private right to pursue legal actions against noncompliant and negligent developers. The OpenAI ballot initiative uses the language of SB 243, which becomes law in January and would require a 2/3rds vote in both houses of the California Legislature to create further chatbot protections.
To strengthen his first-in-the-nation efforts to protect children and vulnerable users from predatory chatbots, Senator Padilla will amend Senate Bill 300 to:
- Bring age verification protocol in line with California’s landmark law, requiring chatbot operators to adhere to a stricter standard
- Require operators to prevent chatbots from producing or facilitating the exchange of any sexually explicit material or proposing any sexually explicit content in interactions with minors
OpenAI recently announced ChatGPT will engage in sexually explicit content with users, creating greater need for enhanced protections. SB 300 will be one of the first pieces of legislation heard in 2026 strengthening those regulations.
To learn more about Senator Padilla’s continued efforts to create common sense regulations around AI chatbots, click here.
The attached language will be amended into Senate Bill 300 at the beginning of the year and the bill will be heard in the Senate in January.
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Steve Padilla represents the 18th Senate District, which includes the communities of Chula Vista, the Coachella Valley, Imperial Beach, the Imperial Valley, National City, and San Diego. Prior to his election to the Senate in 2022, Senator Padilla was the first person of color ever elected to city office in Chula Vista, the first Latino Mayor, and the first openly LGBT person to serve or be elected to city office. Website of Senator Steve Padilla: https://sd18.senate.ca.gov/