The absence of a comprehensive federal AI law has spurred states like California and Colorado to experiment with unique regulatory approaches. This state-level action, while creating a "patchwork," allows for testing different governance models to see what works best before potential federal adoption.

With federal AI legislation stalled, states like Illinois, California, and New York are passing their own AI safety laws. Leading AI labs are endorsing these bills, recognizing that this state-level patchwork is effectively becoming the national standard for AI governance in the U.S.

By aligning its RAISE Act with California's SB 53, New York is helping create a powerful, bi-coastal regulatory consensus. This convergence counters the industry's argument against a "chaotic patchwork" of state laws and establishes a baseline for AI transparency that other states may adopt, effectively setting a national standard in the absence of federal action.

OpenAI is shifting its policy strategy, now supporting state-level regulations like those in Illinois. This marks a move away from waiting for a comprehensive federal standard towards a more practical approach that acknowledges public sentiment and the need to build trust locally.

Encode successfully fought federal preemption of state AI laws by uniting "strange bedfellows" like conservatives, parents of children harmed by AI, and artists. Rallying diverse groups with different end goals against a single, shared threat is a powerful political strategy for blocking unfavorable policy.

In the absence of federal leadership, Governor Newsom's administration has pushed through legislation to regulate large language and frontier AI models, focusing on transparency and safety. This positions California, home to the AI industry, as the primary rule-maker for a technology its own founders call potentially dangerous.

Rather than setting a low standard, passing AI safety laws in states like California creates a strong baseline. This gives advocates leverage to demand an even stronger federal framework, as anything weaker would be a non-starter for stakeholders who oppose federal preemption.

Facing a federal vacuum on AI policy, major players like OpenAI and Google are surprisingly endorsing state-level regulations in California and New York. This counter-intuitive move serves two purposes: it creates a manageable, de facto national standard they can influence, and it pressures a gridlocked Congress to finally act to avoid a messy patchwork of state laws.

Encode's ambitious SB1047 bill was vetoed, but the effort wasn't a failure. It primed the legislature, built a powerful coalition, and put AI regulation on the governor's radar. This "delayed payoff" from the initial failure was essential for passing the subsequent, successful SB53 bill.