California state Sen. Scott Wiener is no stranger to tangling with Silicon Valley. He has built a reputation on introducing aggressive legislation aimed at reining in the industry’s biggest players.
Last year, he helped push through a bill that regulates the state’s AI companies, in an effort to protect against catastrophic risk from AI models. The tech industry largely opposed it, arguing it was unnecessary and could slow down innovation.
But his latest effort, the BASED Act — aimed at stopping trillion-dollar tech monopolies from stifling smaller competitors — has some tech players like YC’s Garry Tan backing him. Anticompetitive behavior by big tech companies, while good for 401(k)s, can stifle innovation. I spoke with Wiener about his new coalition, the battle against Big Tech, and what exactly it means to be “BASED.”