Anthropic, on the other hand, saw the California law as a springboard to ratchet up its efforts on AI safety. Fernandez said the rapid development of increasingly powerful AI models was the main factor behind his company’s endorsement of more ambitious bills — in New York, Illinois and now Massachusetts — and its move to weigh in earlier in the legislative process.“Each one of those bills was stronger than the previous bill, and the bills all moved real safety obligations forward,” Fernandez sai...