OpenAI Accused of Violating California AI Safety Law with Model Releases
OpenAI is facing accusations of violating California's AI safety law after releasing its newest and most powerful models without adequate risk assessments. According to the Midas Project, a nonprofit watchdog, OpenAI failed to publish required loss-of-control risk assessments for its GPT-5.6 and GPT-6 Astra models.
The allegations center on a particularly awkward omission: risk assessments for the exact kind of danger OpenAI itself has been warning the world about, where an AI system effectively slips its leash and operates beyond human oversight.
California's SB 53, the Transparency in Frontier Artificial Intelligence Act, requires frontier AI developers to publish safety frameworks that address risks with potentially catastrophic outcomes. This includes scenarios involving significant loss of human life, major financial damage, and loss-of-control events where AI systems act autonomously in harmful ways.
The Midas Project's analysis claims OpenAI failed to implement necessary misalignment safeguards in the GPT-5.3-Codex model, a prior incident from February 2026. This brings the total to at least three alleged violations in a single year.