Tech Regulation Gets Personal: How Tom Steyer’s Brother Could Shape California’s AI Future

BAY AREA, CA — Long before billionaire Tom Steyer was pouring record-breaking sums into his run for California governor, the family name held significant sway in Sacramento.

The investor-turned-climate activist's older brother, Jim Steyer, is CEO of the influential California nonprofit Common Sense Media, known for helping parents choose suitable media for kids and warring with the entertainment industry over violent video games. A forceful and well-respected crusader for stricter content regulations for children, Steyer has in recent years turned his attention to social media and artificial intelligence chatbots.

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That means if Tom Steyer wins the election, the governor would be close with a prominent advocate of stricter tech laws as Democrats scramble to regulate AI. It would be a shift from current Gov. Gavin Newsom, who has sought to balance AI regulations with a desire to keep technology flourishing in California.

The Steyer relationship makes some advocates optimistic. Lawmakers and advocates for tech regulations said they expect Jim Steyer not to be shy about his policy views with his brother.

Tom Steyer, one of the Democratic leaders in the race, is running as a progressive and promising to strictly regulate industries like oil, utilities and tech. He has promoted an aggressive tech policy agenda that includes privacy and safety restrictions on AI in the workplace, collecting fees from AI data processing to pay for worker retraining and cash benefits, and requiring safety audits on social media.

In his plan, Tom Steyer cites his work with Common Sense Media, which he says he "helped (his) brother Jim Steyer found and build."

"After watching the experiment that social media companies ran on our children, I know we cannot let the same thing happen with AI," his tech policy plan states. "As governor, I will do everything in my power to keep California's kids safe and prepare them for the AI era."

A GREATER SAY ON TECH POLICY?

Tech industry advocates are wary. Common Sense and Big Tech have recently clashed over age limits and industry liability over harmful content, though they have also collaborated on promoting tech education and equitable internet access.

"Certainly Jim Steyer and Common Sense Media will have a greater say," said Peter Leroe-Munoz, a senior vice president at the business group Bay Area Council. "Common Sense Media would have an outsized influence on California tech policy if Mr. Steyer ends up becoming the governor."

The council's membership includes Meta, Google, Microsoft and OpenAI.

A Common Sense push to restrict social media use for children under 16 has united many Democrats, including Newsom. The proposal amid findings that the platforms are harmful to youth mental health and are designed to be addictive. Tom Steyer supports an age ban, along with several of his Democratic competitors.

The industry balks at the proposal, in part because it would require tech companies to collect mass amounts of user age data, Leroe-Munoz said.

Tom Steyer told CalMatters last week that he hasn't spoken with his brother about social media and AI policy. He also said he doesn't have an opinion on two bills inspired by Common Sense and OpenAIthis year to more strictly regulate how chatbots interact with minors.

Asked if the relationship with his brother would influence his tech policy, he said he trusts Jim Steyer's expertise but would not "slavishly follow what my brother says."

"My brother's been protecting kids for 50 years and I listen to him, but it's not like he's suddenly going to become me," he said. "I don't think it is a conflict of interest for him to try and do his job and for me to try and do my job."

Jim Steyer did not respond to repeated interview requests sent to a Common Sense Media representative. The nonprofit's spokesperson, Edda Collins Coleman, wrote in an email that while "Jim strongly supports his brother in his personal capacity," the nonprofit "does not get involved in electoral politics."

STRANGE BEDFELLOWS

Jim Steyer has praised his younger brother's candidacy, writing on X after a televised debate last month that Tom Steyer is "the fighter that California needs right now." He also helped his brother campaign during a short-lived presidential run in 2020.

Jim Steyer founded Common Sense Media in 2003 as a service to rate movies, TV shows, websites and digital content to help parents evaluate their age-appropriateness. Tom Steyer is a member of the board of advisers, and he and his wife Kat have given the nonprofit at least $5 million over the years.

In 2005, the organization pushed hard for a California law banning the sale of violent video games to children without parental consent. The law was later struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court on First Amendment grounds.

The organization soon turned toward tech and social media, becoming one of Sacramento's most influential voices on digital safety for kids and regularly testifying in legislative committee hearings. In 2016, as Common Sense sought to build political clout on children's issues, Jim Steyer told the San Francisco Chronicle it had "nothing to do with my brother's political career." The nonprofit has supported dozens of proposed regulations in the past few years, including a major privacy law passed in 2018 that allows users and customers to have businesses delete personal data collected about them.

Now, Common Sense regularly publishes studies of the effects of social media and AI on child mental health. It also reviews AI tools for parents, rating how they handle young users who express suicidal thoughts or encourage kids to develop healthy human relationships.

Last fall, Newsom vetoed a Common Sense bill that would have created an effective ban on AI chatbots for minors. Lawmakers passed the measure in the wake of a rash of reports of teenagers dying by suicide after developing relationships with ChatGPT, which is made by OpenAI. Some parents, in lawsuits, have alleged that the chatbot encouraged or coached children to harm themselves.

Jim Steyer moved to put a restrictive chatbot measure on the statewide ballot; OpenAI planned to pursue a counter-measure that essentially reflected current law. The pair surprised other regulation advocates in January when they announced they were partnering on a joint ballot measure instead.

Jim Steyer recently drew criticism from fellow advocates when Politico reported that Common Sense was seeking financial support from OpenAI and other companies to form an AI safety institute. Critics worry the partnership would allow the industry to audit itself -- especially concerning since many advocates already believed the compromise ballot measure doesn't go far enough.

The discussion has mostly moved to the state Legislature, where lawmakers are advancing two bills based on the compromise measure. They would require tech companies to verify the ages of their users and redesign their platforms to prevent chatbots from encouraging harmful behavior and delivering the sycophantic responses that alarm children's advocates.

"Children and younger people, they don't have the ability in the same ways as adults to differentiate between human and quasi-human relationships with these types of technologies," said bill author Assemblymember Buffy Wicks, an Oakland Democrat who used to work at Common Sense Media.

The legislation also requires third-party audits of chatbot safety, which Wicks said the tech industry opposes.

Neither Coleman of Common Sense Media nor a representative for OpenAI responded to inquiries about the potential safety institute.

"We will be as rigorous and honest as ever in evaluating tech products that pose harms to kids and teens and young people's educational and cognitive development," Coleman wrote in a statement. "We have long supported third-party child safety audits, which much of the industry opposes."

Jamie Court, president of the advocacy group Consumer Watchdog, has worked with both Steyers on policy and is among those who want more stringent restrictions on tech platforms. He said it "bothers" him that Common Sense, the most powerful advocate on tech policy in Sacramento, may partner with the industry, but he doesn't begrudge Jim Steyer.

"Jim might have a harder audience with Tom than another governor" on tech policy, Court joked. "Jim's a little bit more accommodating to the companies because he has to work with them. Tom shoots more from the hip. Tom might be a little more radical."

By Jeanne Kuang, CalMatters
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