Nancy Pelosi’s replacement is ready to regulate AI

Scott Wiener was declared the winner of Nancy Pelosi's open San Francisco congressional seat on Friday, and within hours the California state senator was talking about AI risk rather than transition logistics. In a 20-minute conversation shortly after the call, he argued that Congress is running out of time to act on advanced AI, saying "we could sleepwalk into a disaster" and that he had hoped for decisive federal action before the end of this year.

His urgency got a fresh data point the day before the interview. Nonprofit METR released a report that was widely read as evidence Anthropic had achieved recursive self-improvement — AI meaningfully advancing itself. Wiener cited it as proof the window for regulation is closing, repeating the phrase "recursive self-improvement" half a dozen times during the discussion and saying, "We need to slow this down. Because it's moving very quickly."

Wiener arrives in Washington with a legislative record. His SB 1047, authored in 2024, was on track to become the country's first frontier AI law before Governor Gavin Newsom vetoed it; he then sponsored SB 53, a lighter measure Newsom signed. Both bills have informed proposed federal legislation, and Wiener said he would welcome a seat on a select committee on artificial intelligence — an idea Democrats have discussed since September.

On policy, he wants a strong, empowered, nimble federal regulator, along with whistleblower protections, kill switches, and auditing requirements — and he opposes federal laws that would strip states of their own authority to regulate. He also flagged obstacles: Congress's poor record on tech regulation and President Trump's hostility to AI safety concerns, while hoping any crisis that forces action is, in his words, "as small as possible."

A campaign finance fight shadows the transition. Wiener's congressional race took in over $3 million from Public First Action, a pro-regulation nonprofit that receives substantial funding from Anthropic, prompting attacks that he is too close to the industry. He rejected the criticism, saying the group backed him because he was the first lawmaker to introduce and pass AI regulation over Big Tech's objections. What to watch: whether a select committee materializes, whether Ro Khanna's federal regulator bill gains traction, and how much room a Trump administration leaves for the state-level authority Wiener wants to preserve.