SACRAMENTO, California — Vivek Murthy, the former U.S. surgeon general under Joe Biden, has joined the San Francisco-based nonprofit Common Sense Media in a role that aims to vault him back into the limelight on one of his signature issues: youth online safety.
Murthy’s addition to Common Sense Media’s board of directors, first shared exclusively with POLITICO Pro’s California Decoded newsletter, underscores public health experts’ increasing concern about the potential harms that social media and artificial intelligence pose to kids’ mental health and well-being. Murthy has argued teen anxiety and depression diagnoses linked to social media use are exacerbating a youth “mental health crisis.”
He also advocated during his time as surgeon general for slapping tobacco-style health warning labels on social media — an idea that has started to gain momentum among both state and federal lawmakers.
Common Sense Media CEO Jim Steyer — brother of the billionaire, once presidential candidate Tom — told POLITICO that he envisions Murthy as the face of national and international tech safety campaigns, including to back pending legislation in California that would require age verification online and restrict AI chatbots’ interactions with kids.
The rise of artificial intelligence in particular has created new dynamics for parents and safety advocates, with recent teen suicides drawing lawsuits and scrutiny over how chatbots like ChatGPT interact with minors. That debate has also prompted companies like OpenAI to create new safeguards, as pressure mounts from state and federal officials.
“We want him to be a public spokesperson on everything from the bills that are sitting on [Gov. Gavin Newsom’s] desk right now to all sorts of other stuff related to AI and public health,” Steyer said in an interview. “He can pick up the phone and call pretty much anybody.”
Steyer said he’s also already consulted Murthy on California’s own proposal for social media warning labels, which is awaiting a final decision by Newsom.
Murthy was traveling and unavailable for comment before publication time.
He isn’t the first former Biden official to join Common Sense under Steyer, a longtime Democrat who’s close to Hillary Clinton. Bruce Reed, Biden’s former deputy chief of staff, joined Common Sense as head of AI policy in March. Reed was a chief architect of Biden’s AI agenda, leading the creation of a landmark 2023 executive order on AI safety that President Donald Trump overturned just hours after his inauguration in January.
Steyer said he and Reed recruited Murthy in part because the trained physician “was particularly interested” in examining the “enormous public health implications” that AI’s rapid expansion may have for children and families.
“He is definitely a partner in crafting our overall strategy as it relates to the AI companion [chatbot] issue,” Steyer added.
The former surgeon general could boost Common Sense’s clout in a bitter fight with tech giants over its flagship AI safety legislation currently before Newsom. That bill, Democratic Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan’s “LEAD for Kids Act,” bans developers from offering companion chatbots to kids unless the bots are rendered incapable of encouraging a child to engage in harmful, illegal or sexually explicit behavior.
Bauer-Kahan has pitched her nation-leading measure as a response to high-profile lawsuits linking chatbots like OpenAI’s flagship ChatGPT to teen suicide deaths, as well as reports of Meta allowing chatbots to engage in “sensual” conversations with kids.
But tech trade associations representing firms including Google, Meta and OpenAI have called for Newsom to veto the bill, arguing it would overly restrict AI innovation that could benefit kids, such as educational tools, and potentially put children’s privacy at risk.
Tech industry groups are instead rallying behind another Democrat-led measure that comes with self-harm reporting requirements but doesn’t outright ban kids from accessing certain AI tools.
“[Newsom is] getting an incredible amount of incoming pressure from the huge tech giants who want a completely unregulated playing field,” said Steyer, referencing a recent conversation where he urged the governor to sign the LEAD for Kids Act. “He was very frank with me.”
Newsom spokesperson Tara Gallegos declined to comment on the conversation and said the governor’s office “doesn’t typically comment on pending legislation.”
Murthy first served as surgeon general from 2015 to 2017 under then-President Barack Obama and was reappointed to the post by Biden in 2021. He has long advocated for community building and social health as an antidote to what he sees as a growing loneliness epidemic fueled in part by technology.
In July, Murthy launched “The Together Project” initiative with philanthropic funding from the Knight Foundation, aimed at promoting social connection to combat loneliness.
A version of this story first appeared in California Decoded, POLITICO’s morning newsletter for Pros about how the Golden State is shaping tech policy within its borders and beyond. Like this content? POLITICO Pro subscribers receive it daily. Learn more at www.politicopro.com.
