Scott Wiener wins Pelosi's San Francisco seat and pledges to push federal AI regulation

Scott Wiener, author of California's SB 1047 and SB 53, won the congressional race for Nancy Pelosi's open San Francisco seat and said he wants Congress to act decisively on AI risk. He cited a METR report widely read as evidence of recursive self-improvement at Anthropic and called for a strong federal regulator, whistleblower protections, testing and auditing requirements, and a kill switch. Wiener, whose campaign received over $3 million from the pro-regulation nonprofit Public First Action, opposes broad federal preemption of state AI laws and described himself as only cautiously optimistic about Congress reining in AI.