Transparency, not licensing

Instead of licensing, the EU, California and New York converged on published safety frameworks, incident reporting and regulator access to models. Federal US policy pushes back on state laws while relying on voluntary testing.

1. 13 Jun 2024Rule · Partly in forceEU

   EU AI Act

   The first binding law with specific duties for general-purpose and systemic-risk models.

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2. 10 Jul 2025Rule changeFrontierEU

   EU publishes General-Purpose AI Code of Practice ahead of AI Act model duties

   The code most major labs signed to show compliance; xAI only partly.

3. 29 Sep 2025Rule changeFrontierUS-CA

   California enacts SB 53, first US state law on frontier AI transparency

   California sets the US template: frameworks, incident reports, whistleblowers.

4. 11 Dec 2025Rule · In forceUS

   State AI law preemption EO

   Federal order targeting state AI laws raises pre-emption risk for SB 53-style rules.

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5. 27 Mar 2026Rule changeFrontierUS-NY

   New York finalises RAISE Act, aligning frontier AI law closely with California

   New York converges on California's model but with 72-hour reporting and a DFS regulator.

6. 3 Feb 2026Rule · In forceINTL

   International AI Safety Report

   The shared scientific baseline governments cite for these rules.

7. 2 Aug 2026Rule changeFrontierEU

   EU AI Office gains powers to enforce AI Act rules on general-purpose models

   EU gains fining and model-access powers over frontier providers.

8. 2 Jun 2026Rule · In forceUS

   EO 14409 (covered frontier models)

   US prefers voluntary pre-release testing and explicitly rules out licensing.

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