Hollywood bucks Nancy Pelosi on this major California bill

Hollywood has officially entered the AI chat.

After winning a major battle against studios’ use of artificial intelligence last year, Tinseltown actors are now wading into one of the nation’s most high-profile fights over the future of AI, with a growing number endorsing a bill that would require large-scale AI models to undergo safety testing before deployment .

The bill, authored by a San Francisco Democrat, currently sits on the governor’s desk and he must sign or veto it by Sept. 30.

State Sen. Scott Wiener’s legislation is seemingly unrelated to the digital replica concerns that were at the center of last year’s five-month strike. But in the last week, it has earned the endorsement of the mighty actors' union SAG-AFTRA and garnered the attention of celebrities like Mark Ruffalo, Sean Astin and Rosie Perez, who view the legislation as a critical safeguard against a powerful technology and are urging Gov. Gavin Newsom to sign it.

“AI is about to explode in a way [where] we have no idea what the consequences are,” the Hulk actor said in a video posted to X over the weekend. “Gov. Newsom, please do the right thing, don’t bow to the billionaires — protect us.”

Artificial intelligence has become a political lightning rod in the last several months, especially for celebrities who have seen their voices and likenesses digitally replicated without their consent. AI deepfakes were among the reasons Taylor Swift said she endorsed Kamala Harris , the singer wrote on Instagram last week, pointing out former President Donald Trump’s use of a digitally manufactured image of her.

The state Senate bill is perhaps the most politically fraught one on Newsom’s desk this year. Not only would it enact industry-changing policies and set the standard for AI policy nationally, it’s also opposed by some of the most powerful entities in Silicon Valley, like OpenAI and A16Z, as well as Democratic heavyweights like Rep. Nancy Pelosi.

While the bill might not immediately affect Hollywood, the recent celebrity involvement suggests it has come to represent the pro-regulation side of the broader fight over AI.

The governor has deflected questions about Wiener’s bill in recent months, but he has signaled support for regulating deepfakes. In July he slammed an altered video depicting an AI-generated version of Vice President Kamala Harris, saying that “manipulating a voice in an ‘ad’ like this one should be illegal,” and declaring he intended to sign a bill to do so.

That earned Newsom a schoolboy response from X owner and internet provocateur Elon Musk, who, incidentally, is now supporting Wiener’s bill .

Newsom never specified which AI bill he intended to sign, but he has multiple proposals before him that would tackle the issue of unauthorized replication and on Tuesday signed two of them into law . One of them, from Democratic Assemblymember Ash Kalra and co-sponsored by the California Labor Federation, sets new rules on the use of digital replicas in performer contracts. Another by Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan, sponsored by SAG-AFTRA, allows the estates of deceased celebrities to sue if someone digitally replicates them without consent.

“Hollywood and the entertainment industry are an entry point for Californians to understand why this is important,” Kalra told POLITICO in an interview. “These are folks that they can relate to. They know who they are and they recognize why it's important.”

Then there’s the matter of elections. There are a pair of bills that go after campaign deepfakes: One from Assemblymember Gail Pellerin would prohibit circulating deceptive campaign material, and a complementary bill from Assemblymembers Marc Berman and Pellerin would require large online platforms like X to remove deceptive, digitally-created content related to elections during certain periods before and after an election.

The California legislation could be a topic of conversation at two high-profile AI events on Tuesday.

In Washington, POLITICO is hosting an AI & Tech summit , featuring exclusive conversations with senior tech leaders, officials and lawmakers. POLITICO’s Steven Overly will interview California’s own GOP Rep. Jay Obernolte, co-chair of the Bipartisan Task Force on AI and one of the few AI experts in Congress.

And downtown San Francisco is once again host to Dreamforce, the multiday tech conference hosted by Salesforce founder Marc Benioff. Mayor London Breed on Monday touted the event, which is estimated to generate nearly $93 million in total economic impact, calling San Francisco the “AI hub of the world.”

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