Two State AI Laws to Watch

Artificial intelligence firms’ failure last week to convince U.S. lawmakers to ban state-based laws targeting AI means all eyes are now on state legislatures that aim to pass them.

One law that’s close to the finish line is New York’s Responsible AI Safety and Education Act. The state legislature passed the bill in June, and eventually it will head to the desk of the governor, who will decide whether to sign it, veto it or negotiate amendments to it. 

A final decision might not come until the winter, said Sunny Gandhi, vice president of political affairs at Encode, a nonprofit policy advocacy organization that sponsored the legislation.

The RAISE Act takes after California’s SB 1047, a proposed AI regulation that faced opposition from tech companies and venture capitalists last year and was eventually vetoed by the governor. 

The RAISE Act would require AI companies that spend more than $100 million training an AI model to put in place a safety and cybersecurity policy. That policy would outline how the company tests the security of its models and their ability to enable a “critical harm,” defined as killing or injuring over 100 people or causing over $1 billion in damages.

Many AI companies already have such policies in place and voluntarily test their models’ abilities to create weapons of mass destruction, but the bill would mandate such policies. And if an incident, such as the theft of an AI model, risks a critical harm, the bill requires the AI company to report it to federal authorities.

Next up is California. State Senator Scott Wiener introduced SB 53, legislation that revived two pieces of SB 1047 that were relatively uncontroversial: protections for whistleblowers at AI companies and the creation of CalCompute, a public cluster of AI chips for academics and startups. Under the bill, companies would not be allowed to retaliate against an employee for contacting the authorities if the employee “has reasonable cause to believe” their company’s AI poses a critical risk.

If you followed the saga around SB 1047, you might recall that Anthropic took issue with its whistleblower protections out of concern they were overbroad, arguing they could have caused the company to lose AI trade secrets.

SB 53 passed the state Senate in May, and Sen. Wiener is currently shepherding it through the Assembly. 

States seeking to regulate the emerging technology could clash with their federal counterparts again. Ted Cruz, who advocated for the moratorium on state AI laws, has said he could introduce the ban as part of a separate AI bill, and the Congressman who oversees the committee that proposed the ban has said he will keep pushing for it.

Robot Fight Club

Over the weekend, tech enthusiasts gathered in a San Francisco basement to listen to pounding techno music and watch humanoid robots throw fists. The high-tech cage match was hosted by Frontier Tower, an up-and-coming office space where each of the 16 floors is dedicated to a different subject, including AI, crypto, longevity and—of course—robotics.

“This momentous occasion marks the first of its kind on American soil,” proclaimed the event’s invitation. The patriotic sentiment was fitting for the Fourth of July weekend, but the statement could also be a nod to the recent robotic sporting events hosted in China, including a humanoid half marathon and a soccer game. 

The winning robot was remotely piloted by Cix Liv, founder of Rek, a startup designing a VR robot fighting game.

To be sure, humanoid robots have a long way to go before their athletic abilities rival humans, but these events show that robots are already agile enough to be entertaining, so you can expect more life-size Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots in the coming years.

Here’s what else is going on…

Overheard

“You might have heard rumors of companies looking to acquire us. We are flattered by their attention but are focused on seeing our work through,” Ilya Sutskever wrote to employees of Safe Superintelligence in a memo shared on X. “We have the compute, we have the team, and we know what to do.”

SSI co-founder Daniel Gross’s departure to Meta occasioned the message, which added that Sutskever would become CEO and Daniel Levy would be president of the startup.

Deals and Debuts

See The Information’s Generative AI Database for an exclusive list of private companies and their investors.

Savvy Wealth, which develops AI-powered software for financial advisors, raised $72 million in a Series B funding round led by Industry Ventures, with participation from Vestigo Ventures, Euclidean Capital, Canvas Ventures, Thrive Capital, The House Fund and Brewer Lane Ventures.

Hived, which develops AI-based software for logistics companies, raised $42 million in a Series B funding round led by NordicNinja, with participation from Planet A, Wex Venture Capital, Marunouchi Innovation Partners, Elemental Impact, Yamato Holdings, Future Back Ventures and Rocketship VC.

Argon AI, which develops AI to help pharmaceutical companies use their data, raised $5.5 million in seed funding led by Crosslink Capital and Wireframe Ventures, with participation from Y Combinator and Pioneer Fund.

Woodchuck, which uses AI cameras to identify scrap wood for recycling, raised $3.75 million in seed funding led by investor Mason Fink, with participation from Beckett Industries, Alloy Partners and NorthStar Clean Energy

MogoPlus, which uses AI to help banks automate lending decisions, raised $1 million in funding led by New Model Venture Capital Group.

The Trump administration is planning to restrict the sale of key artificial intelligence chips to Malaysia and Thailand as part of an effort to block China’s access to such chips through intermediaries in Southeast Asia, Bloomberg reported.

The European Union said it would move forward with its timeline for the AI Act, some of which is due to go into effect next month, after European AI companies such as Mistral and ASML called on the E.U. to delay the law for two years.

TSMC is delaying its plans to construct a second semiconductor manufacturing plant in Japan to prioritize its expansion in the U.S. ahead of potential tariffs from the Trump administration, the Wall Street Journal reported.

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