Gavin Newsom takes a populist turn on AI ahead of a possible 2028 presidential run

Artificial intelligenceGavin Newsom takes a populist turn on AI ahead of a possible 2028 presidential runAI is becoming a dominant political issue, with many on the right and the left coalescing around concerns about the rapid growth of the industry.Listen to this article with a free account00:0000:00California Gov. Gavin Newsom recently signed an executive order requiring state agencies to work with industry groups, academics and organized labor to develop plans for assessing and offsetting AI’s effects on workers in the state.Tayfun Coskun / Anadolu via Getty Images fileShareAdd NBC News to GoogleMay 27, 2026, 1:25 PM EDTBy Jonathan AllenFor years, California Gov. Gavin Newsom has reaped the benefits of Silicon Valley’s AI boom — in the form of tax revenue for his state and political contributions from industry leaders.Subscribe to read this story ad-free Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content.Newsom’s interests often aligned with those of tech titans, and he largely protected those interests. In 2024, for example, he vetoed a bill that would have created legal liabilities for artificial intelligence companies in the event of catastrophes involving terrorism, mass casualties or other damage to society. It would also have required the companies to maintain kill switches so that AI processes could be turned off. Newsom has long talked about the need to find a practical balance between utopian corporate visions of AI’s upsides and dystopian populist nightmares of human subservience to machines. “Given the stakes — protecting against actual threats without unnecessarily thwarting the promise of this technology to advance the public good — we must get this right,” he said in his veto message.But as he lays the groundwork for a widely anticipated 2028 presidential bid, Newsom is shifting his weight away from the corporate end of the balance and toward the populist end. The move could have implications not only for the Democratic nomination fight,...