By TRÂN NGUYỄN

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday signed a law that aims to prevent people from using powerful artificial intelligence models for potentially catastrophic activities like building a bioweapon or shutting down a bank system.

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The move comes as Newsom touted California as a leader in AI regulation and criticized the inaction at the federal level in a recent conversation with former President Bill Clinton. The new law will establish some of the first-in-the-nation regulations on large-scale AI models without hurting the state’s homegrown industry, Newsom said. Many of the world’s top AI companies are located in California and will have to follow the requirements.

“California has proven that we can establish regulations to protect our communities while also ensuring that the growing AI industry continues to thrive. This legislation strikes that balance,” Newsom said in a statement.

The legislation requires AI companies to implement and disclose publicly safety protocols to prevent their most advanced models from being used to cause major harm. The rules are designed to cover AI systems if they meet a “frontier” threshold that signals they run on a huge amount of computing power.

Such thresholds are based on how many calculations the computers are performing. Those who crafted the regulations have acknowledged the numerical thresholds are an imperfect starting point to distinguish today’s highest-performing generative AI systems from the next generation that could be even more powerful. The existing systems are largely made by California-based companies like Anthropic, Google, Meta Platforms and OpenAI.

The legislation defines a catastrophic risk as something that would cause at least $1 billion in damage or more than 50 injuries or deaths. It’s designed to guard against AI being used for activities that could cause mass disruption, such as hacking into a power grid.

Companies also have to report to the state any critical safety incidents within 15 days. The law creates whistleblower protections for AI workers and establishes a public cloud for researchers. It includes a fine of $1 million per violation.

It drew opposition from some tech companies, which argued that AI legislation should be done at the federal level. But Anthropic said the regulations are “practical safeguards” that make official the safety practices many companies are already doing voluntarily.

“While federal standards remain essential to avoid a patchwork of state regulations, California has created a strong framework that balances public safety with continued innovation,” Jack Clark, co-founder and head of policy at Anthropic, said in a statement.

The signing comes after Newsom last year vetoed a broader version of the legislation, siding with tech companies that said the requirements were too rigid and would have hampered innovation. Newsom instead asked a group of several industry experts, including AI pioneer Fei-Fei Li, to develop recommendations on guardrails around powerful AI models.

The new law incorporates recommendations and feedback from Newsom’s group of AI experts and the industry, supporters said. The legislation also doesn’t put the same level of reporting requirements on startups to avoid hurting innovation, said state Sen. Scott Wiener of San Francisco, the bill’s author.

“With this law, California is stepping up, once again, as a global leader on both technology innovation and safety,” Wiener said in a statement.

Newsom’s decision comes as President Donald Trump in July announced a plan to eliminate what his administration sees as “onerous” regulations to speed up AI innovation and cement the U.S.’ position as the global AI leader. Republicans in Congress earlier this year unsuccessfully tried to ban states and localities from regulating AI for a decade.

Without stronger federal regulations, states across the country have spent the last few years trying to rein in the technology, tackling everything from deepfakes in elections to AI “therapy.” In California, the Legislature this year passed a number of bills to address safety concerns around AI chatbots for children and the use of AI in the workplace.

California has also been an early adopter of AI technologies. The state has deployed generative AI tools to spot wildfires and address highway congestion and road safety, among other things.

Associated Press reporter Matt O’Brien contributed to the report.

By JEFFREY COLLINS

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Former Republican South Carolina Rep. RJ May admitted in court Monday that he sent hundreds of videos of children being sexually abused to people across the country on social media.

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May pleaded guilty to what prosecutors in court papers called a “five-day child pornography spree” in the spring of 2024.

May, who resigned earlier this year, is accused of using the screen name “joebidennnn69” to exchange 220 different files of toddlers and young children involved in sex acts on the Kik social media network, according to court documents that graphically detailed the videos.

“Bear with me. This is very hard to read,” U.S. Attorney Bryan Stirling said as he haltingly read a brief description of each video for television reporters outside of court since cameras aren’t allowed in federal courtrooms.

May, 38, pleaded guilty to five counts of distributing the videos and faces five to 20 years in prison on each charge. He will have to register as a sex offender and could be fined up to $250,000, according to his plea agreement.

The five counts represented the worst videos May shared, Stirling said.

Felony convictions bar May from voting or having a weapon

The felony convictions means the political consultant and National Rifle Association member cannot vote, hold public office, carry a gun or serve on a jury the rest of his life.

May’s sentencing is scheduled for Jan. 14 — the second day of the South Carolina legislature’s 2026 session.

The evidence against May included logs of his laptop and cellphone use, showing he was uploading and downloading the child sexual abuse videos at the same time he was emailing work files, making phone calls, doing web searches and messaging someone on Kik asking for “Bad moms. Bad dads. Bad pre teens.”

May mostly spent Monday’s hourlong hearing answering the judge’s questions. At the end, when Judge Cameron McGowan Currie asked May if he had anything else he wanted to say, May answered, “not at this time, your honor.”

May changed his mind about pleading guilty after hearing

May changed his mind and decided to plead guilty just hours after a Wednesday pretrial hearing in which he acted as his own attorney.

During Wednesday’s hearing, May made arguments to the judge to throw out the warrant used to search his home, laptop and mobile devices. She denied May’s request just hours after prosecutors filed documents detailing May’s plea on Friday.

Prosecutors showed May used his phone to upload and download videos through his cell network and home wireless network and also showed him charts explaining in stark, factual ways what was on each video May is charged with distributing.

May also tried to keep out any evidence about whether he used a fake name to travel to Colombia three times. Prosecutors said they found videos on his laptop of him allegedly having sex on the trips. A Homeland Security agent testified the women appeared to be underage and were paid. U.S. agents have not been able to locate the women.

May admitted to using the fake name Monday in court but was not asked about the videos.

May was a rising Republican political force in South Carolina

May was in his third term in the South Carolina House and was attacking fellow Republicans to go in a more conservative direction before he resigned.

“We as legislators have an obligation to insure that our children have no harm done to them,” May said in January 2024 on the House floor during a debate on transgender care for minors.

After his election in 2020, he helped create the Freedom Caucus. He also helped the campaigns of Republicans running against GOP House incumbents.

By TODD RICHMOND

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Ducky is dead.

The International Crane Foundation announced Monday that Ducky, an endangered female whooping crane the foundation planned to release into the wilds of Wisconsin this fall, died on Thursday after becoming infected with Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza, a strain of avian flu.

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Foundation officials said in a news release that Ducky’s death marks the first time the strain has killed a whooping crane.

Only about 700 wild whooping cranes are left in North America, according to the foundation. Ducky’s death translates to a 1% decline in the eastern migratory population, which stands at fewer than 70 birds.

“We are deeply saddened by the loss of Ducky,” Kim Boardman, the foundation’s birds curator, said in the release. “Each Whooping Crane is invaluable — not only to our organization, but to the survival of the entire species.”

Ducky hatched in May and was part of the Baraboo-based foundation’s breeding and reintroduction program. She was reared by foundation staff outfitted in crane costumes in an effort to prevent her from imprinting on humans, boosting her chances of survival in the wild. She was among a group of eight cranes set to be released into the Horicon National Wildlife Refuge in October.

Dr. Diana Boon, the foundation’s director of conservation medicine, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview that Ducky’s group has been at the refuge since August acclimating to the area and learning survival behavior. Ducky became sick early last week, becoming lethargic and stumbling before she finally died.

Boon speculated that Ducky may have come into contact with an infected bird or through environmental exposure to the HPAI virus as she explored the refuge. Wild birds, including waterfowl such as ducks, geese and swans, can carry the virus, often without showing symptoms, and shed it through feces, which in turn can contaminate water sources.

Staff at the marsh have taken to wearing personal protective equipment beneath their crane costumes and are keeping their distance from the rest of Ducky’s group to avoid getting sick, but so far none of the other chicks have shown any symptoms, Boon said. Foundation spokesperson Ryan Michalesko said staff members will continue to monitor the birds but still hope to release them sometime later this year.

Avian flu killed several thousand sandhill cranes in Indiana earlier this year.

The International Crane Foundation was founded in 1973. It works to protect whooping cranes around the globe through a network of experts in 50 countries.

Has anyone else noticed there’s something going on with the Twins?

Remember when the management tanked the season by trading 40 percent of the active roster at the trade deadline? It was the last week in July. The team bottomed out and on Monday, a day after the team finished the season with 92 losses, the Twins fired manager Rocco Baldelli.

It wasn’t totally crazy, or even unexpected. The Twins missed the playoffs in four of the past five seasons, and it didn’t look great when veteran all-star Pablo Lopez, in the wake of the trade deadline, said that he and the remaining veterans would use the opportunity to “rebuild the culture in the clubhouse.”

“Culture,” he added, “is one thing we’ve been lacking the last couple of years.”

Lopez was talking primarily about teammates, presumably recently departed teammates, but it also didn’t look great for Baldelli, whose job it is to keep everyone working and engaged.

Still, the team that finished the season with a 10-inning, 2-1 loss at postseason-bound Philadelphia was a bad one, gutted by a weeklong series of trade deadline moves that swapped nearly all of the competent veterans for prospects. If anyone expected Baldelli to spin gold out of what was left, they were kidding themselves.

There were so many young players on the team in September — some making their first major league appearances after years in the minors — it could have been spring training. Except there would have been more veterans around.

Outside of Lopez, Byron Buxton, Joe Ryan, Bailey Ober and Ryan Jeffers, it’s going to look like that next season, as well. If no one else is traded this offseason.

Making this team better quickly will be impossible. Making it better, period, will be heavy lifting. With Baldelli and his staff ousted, the Twins are officially starting over from rock bottom. There is some talent in the system, some recently acquired, but right now the Twins have a weak-hitting lineup and a sketchy bullpen.

If the team that closed the 2025 season had started it, the Twins would have lost well over 100 games.

Cutting bait just two years removed from the team’s first playoff series victory since 2003 was a little bit odd. On the other hand, it’s pretty clear that ownership, disabused of the notion that it could sell the team for nearly $2 billion, wants to severely slash payroll.

And it has. That’s the easy part.

The hard part is building a good team and putting fans in the seats. Now team president Derek Falvey and general manager Jeremy Zoll, should they choose to accept the mission, are going to have to do that the way the Twins used to do it: development.

The new core was on the field over the last two months of the season, players such as Luke Keaschall, Austin Martin, Brooks Lee, Royce Lewis, Matt Wallner, Kody Funderburk, Zebby Matthews, David Festa and Simeon Woods Richardson. They will be joined by starter Mick Abel, the International League Pitcher of the Year this season.

There is talent there, but it’s unseasoned. Baldelli was tasked with getting the group to play more aggressively, to get on base and force the opposition to make plays. They responded to Baldelli, but wins were sparse. Is that still the plan?

More changes are coming.

With four young starters — Abel, Festa, Matthews and Woods Richardson — beginning their major league careers, it doesn’t make sense to hang on to Lopez, Ryan and Bailey Ober. Not when you’re starting over with players just getting a taste of the majors and an entirely new coaching staff.

If it works, it will be exciting and perhaps sustainable. Management thanks you for your patience.

Chief Baseball Officer Derek Falvey of the Minnesota Twins looks on as new manager Rocco Baldelli speaks as Baldelli is introduced at a press conference at Target Field on Oct. 25, 2018 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Photo by Hannah Foslien/Getty Images)
Rocco Baldelli #5 of the Minnesota Twins celebrates after defeating the Toronto Blue Jays in Game Two to win the Wild Card Series at Target Field on Oct. 04, 2023 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Photo by Adam Bettcher/Getty Images)

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