Tag: AB-1883

3 articles

Market Moves

Sabi raises $50 million for a brain-sensing baseball cap

Khosla Ventures has led a $50 million seed round in Sabi, a California startup building a baseball cap meant to turn imagined words and trained mental commands into text and instructions for AI assistants. Accel, Initialized Capital, former OpenAI chief product officer Kevin Weil, DST Global, Collaborative Fund and Ascend also invested, Sabi announced on 9 October 2026. Forbes put the valuation at $600 million, citing a person familiar with the deal. The cap is designed to read brain signals through hair with sensors built around a custom EEG chip, and to decode them with a model Sabi says was trained on more than 100,000 hours of labelled recordings. In April, Sabi said its first product would be a beanie available by the end of 2026. The cap will now debut as an early prototype at CES in January, and Forbes reported that it will not be available until 2027. Sabi has named no price and published no peer-reviewed results, and its only accuracy figure, up to 77 per cent, comes from a wired laboratory prototype.

Oct 11

Policy & Regulation

California bans employers from using AI tools to collect workers' neural data

California Governor Gavin Newsom signed AB 1883 on 30 September 2026, the last day he could act on bills this session. From 1 January 2027 the law, by Assemblymember Isaac Bryan (D-Los Angeles), bars employers from using workplace surveillance tools that use artificial intelligence to collect employees' neural data or to recognise, infer or predict their emotional state. It defines neural data as information generated by measuring activity in an employee's central or peripheral nervous system, covers public as well as private employers, and allows penalties of up to $500 per violation, enforced by the Labor Commissioner and public prosecutors. Tools used to ensure safety, and some federally regulated aerospace and defence work, are exempt. In his signing message Newsom said the law lacks key definitions and asked the Legislature to refine it. Three days earlier he vetoed AB 1542, leaving consumers with an opt-out over the sale of the same category of data.

Oct 2

Policy & Regulation

California AB 1883 would prohibit employer collection of brain data unless used for safety

California Assemblymember Isaac Bryan's AB 1883, which regulates workplace surveillance including a specific prohibition on employer collection of neural data with a safety-use carve-out, has cleared the Assembly and moved most of the way through the Senate per CalMatters' 10 August 2026 tracking. A parallel Assembly Bill 1542 authored by Assemblymember Christopher Ward would prohibit the sale of neural data. Vermont S.71 (signed 16 June 2026) and H.814 (signed May 2026) are the most recent enacted comparators.

Aug 11