Adam Billen

AI @EncodeAction

[Tyler Johnston @tyler_johnston]

Call me obtuse, but I don't think you can:

(1) be OpenAI's president;
(2) make donations advised by OpenAI's chief lobbyist;
(3) direct said donations to an industry PAC that OpenAI's chief lobbyist helped build and *modeled* on the last PAC he ran; and
(4) go to the media advertising that the donation is in service of OpenAI's mission;

And then act surprised if people misunderstand whether the PAC speaks on behalf of you or your company instead.

[Jared Perlo @_perloj]

BREAKING: Illinois legislature passes first-of-its-kind bill requiring leading AI companies to undergo third-party audits for safety issues. SB315 goes beyond existing legislation from CA and NY and will head to gov's desk. I spoke with sponsor Rep. Didech to hear more (below).

[Adam Billen @AdamBillen]

can't stop winning

[Governor JB Pritzker @GovPritzker]

Illinois is leading the nation in holding Big Tech accountable.

As AI systems impact people’s lives, we need safeguards in place.

I look forward to signing SB 315 and working with the legislature so that AI, when used, is used responsibly.

[The Midas Project @TheMidasProj]

Following the report we co-authored last week about xAI in light of its upcoming IPO, xAI updated its safety page.

The new text gestures toward some industry-standard safety practices discussed in the report.

Sadly, the new page is both seemingly inaccurate and AI-generated 🙄

[Kyle Jacobs-Morse @Kyle_A_Morse]

Leading the Future are lying liars trying to retcon people into believing they support "reasonable" AI guardrails, like the RAISE Act.

Here is a screenshot from their very first attack ad. SURPRISE: They're bashing @AlexBores for authoring the RAISE Act.

Can't believe a word LTF says.

[Steven Adler @sjgadler]

Some personal news: I've started a new AI safety standards org, and our first two standards are out today.

We're called Guidelight, co-founded with fellow ex-OpenAI safety researcher, Page Hedley. (1/n)

[Nathan Calvin @_NathanCalvin]

Encode AI is one of four co-authors on a new report about xAI's AI safety record, an area that should be receiving much more scrutiny and attention in the lead up to SpaceX's IPO.

Elon Musk was among the earliest and most vocal proponents warning about severe AI risks and urging regulation, but that attitude has not been matched by the practices of his frontier lab xAI (now merged with SpaceX), which consistently lag behind the safety practices of its peers. Their peers need to do better too - particularly as models continue to become more capable and progress accelerates, but xAI has an even further distance to go.

The goal of this report is not to hurt SpaceX or xAI, but rather to make sure that they understand that additional investments in safety practices are an essential part of being a responsible actor pushing the frontier of AI progress. There is still time for investors to demand changes, and for SpaceXAI to make changes. Their new testing with CAISI is one positive sign, but our report identifies a plethora of areas where very significant improvement and additional transparency are still needed.

Thus far xAI's missteps have been in some cases very harmful and widespread but are limited to models that are not capable of causing catastrophic harm. If their ambitions to create models as capable, and then more capable, as models like Anthropic's Mythos are successful, then their current practices around safety could prove disastrous.

Maxwell Zeff at WIRED wrote up a story on the report, linking that story and the full report below. Many thanks to our co-authors at Guidelight, Midas Project, and Legal Advocates for Safe Science and Technology.

[Adam Billen @AdamBillen]

@neil_chilson i can appreciate a fellow superhuman enjoyer. i see you neil.

[Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 @peterwildeford]

In a debate between Jensen Huang and Jensen Huang, who will win? It's honestly hard to tell...

[Thomas Woodside 🫜 @Thomas_Woodside]

I can say with authority that this is complete nonsense.

I've been advocating for AI regulation in California for two years. In 2024, I worked with @Scott_Wiener on SB 1047, an AI regulation bill that was vetoed. And I spent my 2025 labor day weekend at a Marriott in Sacramento so that I could advise him during the SB 53 negotiations referred to inaccurately in this video.

Scott Wiener has fought incredibly hard on this issue. He burned huge amounts of political capital to ensure the strongest possible version of SB 53 was signed into law. It was, and we now have a good law on the books, which paved the way for others to follow. Previously, there were no laws in California regulating AI companies' management of catastrophic risk.

[Thomas Woodside 🫜 @Thomas_Woodside]

Though some AI policy professionals knew the Deep Magic, there is a magic deeper still which they did not know. Their knowledge goes back only to the dawn of time. But if they could have looked a little further back, into the stillness and the darkness before Time dawned, they would have read there a different incantation

[Sneha @SnehaRevanur]

I’ve been to AMC Georgetown twice. Once in 2022 to watch Everything Everywhere All At Once, and again this weekend to watch the Everything Everywhere All At Once director’s new movie about AI. This time, I got to see myself on the screen.

When I was interviewed for @theaidocfilm in fall 2024, I was cautiously optimistic. It is really hard to make an evergreen movie about the fastest changing technology ever, and to feature a bunch of people who disagree with each other (intensely) and yet make them all proud.

But the filmmakers killed it. The AI Doc is informative and moving and also just a genuinely fun watch. My message - that there’s a bridge humanity must cross to reach an amazing future, and we can act urgently to safely get to the other side - was represented well. I didn’t feel pigeonholed or caricatured at all.

There is no better feeling than seeing my friends and family all fired up from a movie that masterfully distills what I’ve been talking their heads off about for years. The AI Doc is truly a must watch. Go run to a theater near you - I’m excited to hear what you think :)

[Zamaan Qureshi @zamaan_qureshi]

“There were hundreds of off-ramps for them,” Ava Smithing, founding partner and political director of pro-online safety nonprofit The Attention Studio, said of the tech industry. “This is absolutely their karma.”

[Adam Billen @AdamBillen]

We’re hiring for a policy advisor focused specifically on coalition work and an operations manager!

[Nathan Calvin @_NathanCalvin]

Come work with me and the rest of the team at Encode! We have two open job listings right now:
• Policy Advisor - Coalitions
• Operations Manager

I can't promise you it will be easy work, but I can promise it will never be dull!

(job links in reply)

[Americans for Responsible Innovation @americans4ri]

"Preemption only makes sense if federal law effectively replaces what states have built with a standard that is truly comprehensive and protects Americans."

Great statement from @RepGottheimer on the White House's latest effort to preempt state AI laws.

[Adam Billen @AdamBillen]

@EkGaetan @NCOSE @bradrcarson @twestes 🔥

[Decrypt @DecryptMedia]

Coalition Urges OpenAI to Scrap AI Ballot Measure Over Child Safety Concerns
https://t.co/tUu9YkTN0O

[Nathan Calvin @_NathanCalvin]

Feeling some déjà vu today

[Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell @TheElizMitchell]

SCOOP: The White House is engaging against a Florida bill that would establish limits on AI including protections for minors, @DailySignal has learned.

The WH has contacted FL House Speaker Daniel Perez and his staff about opposing Gov. DeSantis’ AI Bill of Rights, per sources familiar.

This comes the week after the WH was revealed to be exerting pressure in Utah against an AI child safety and transparency bill.

https://t.co/sp8cxyoDJG

[Bannon’s WarRoom @Bannons_WarRoom]

JASON VAN BEEK: There's still time, but we need to get dialed in, be motivated, and have the states pass these AI safety laws.

@vanbejas