California AI Law

Browse California law and bill articles, dated legislative records, and the historical tracker below. A date in an entry identifies the recorded event or source check; it does not imply that every measure has been rechecked today.

Enacted laws

• AB 1883 — Workplace surveillance tools — enacted September 30, 2026 as Chapter 853; restricts AI tools that infer workers’ emotional states or collect neural data. Scheduled effective date: January 1, 2027.
• AI worker-protection package (SB 947, SB 951, AB 1331 and related bills) — signed September 30, 2026; human review, displacement notice and workplace-surveillance protections.
• AB 1609 — Customer-service chatbots — signed September 28, 2026; disclosure and human-support requirements for large businesses.
• Seven-bill data-centre oversight package — signed September 21, 2026; covers resource reporting, electricity costs and environmental review.
• SB 1050 — Synthetic performers in advertising — signed September 16, 2026.
• SB 867 — Companion-chatbot toys — signed September 10, 2026 (chapter 189); effective January 1, 2027.
• AB 1709 — Covered platforms and e-Safety Advisory Commission — signed September 10, 2026 (chapter 183); effective January 1, 2027.
• Adam’s Law (SB 1119) — Companion chatbots: children’s safety — signed September 10, 2026; core safeguards and privacy duties become operative July 1, 2027, with separate phased audit requirements.
• SB 813 — Independent verification organizations — Chapter 179 (2026), approved September 9; statutory agency deadline January 1, 2028, accelerated to May 1, 2027 by N-9-26.
• AB 1405 — AI auditor registration — Chapter 178 (2026), approved September 9; statutory registry deadline and unregistered-audit prohibition January 1, 2029; N-9-26 directs earlier agency implementation by December 1, 2027.
• CA S 928 — California State University faculty employees — enacted August 27, 2026 as Chapter 149; requires CSU instructors of record and faculty employees to be people meeting applicable trustee rules while allowing employees to use AI tools for university operations and student services.
• AB 1651 — State Bar AI disclosures — enacted August 22, 2026 as Chapter 116; requires disclosures for AI-generated bar examination and study content developed by or at the State Bar’s direction, operative January 1, 2028.
• AB 2013, Generative Artificial Intelligence: Training Data Transparency — Chapter 817 (2024); requires developers of generative AI systems or services made available to Californians to post specified documentation about training data.
• SB 942, California AI Transparency Act — Chapter 291 (2024), amended by AB 853 (2025); became operative August 2, 2026. It requires covered generative-AI providers to offer detection tools, give users an option for a visible AI disclosure, and embed latent provenance disclosures in covered image, audio, and video content. See: August 2 update.
• AB 1008, California Consumer Privacy Act: Personal Information — Chapter 802 (2024); amends the CCPA definition of personal information to clarify that personal information can exist in AI systems and other formats.
• AB 1836, Use of Likeness: Digital Replica — Chapter 258 (2024); creates liability for unauthorized digital replicas of deceased personalities in expressive audiovisual works or sound recordings.
• AB 2602, Digital Replicas in Personal or Professional Services Contracts — Chapter 259 (2024); makes certain contract provisions unenforceable when they permit digital replicas of an individual's voice or likeness in lieu of that individual's work without specified protections.
• AB 2839, Elections: Deceptive Media in Advertisements — Chapter 262 (2024); enacted restrictions on materially deceptive election communications, including AI-generated or manipulated media, around California elections. The August 29, 2025 permanent injunction protects the named plaintiffs against enforcement by the defendant officials and those acting with them.
• AB 2885, Artificial Intelligence — Chapter 843 (2024); establishes a cross-code definition of artificial intelligence for specified California statutes.
• AB 3030, Health Care Services: Artificial Intelligence — Chapter 848 (2024); requires specified health care providers using generative AI for patient clinical communications to include AI disclaimers and instructions for contacting a human provider, except when a licensed or certified human health care provider reads and reviews the communication.

AI worker-protection package (September 30, 2026)

Governor Gavin Newsom signed a package of AI measures on September 30, 2026. SB 947 addresses human review of employment discipline and termination decisions; SB 951 requires a covered Cal/WARN notice to identify technological displacement and specified affected jobs when AI or other automation substantially causes a mass layoff, relocation or termination. AB 1331 limits workplace-bathroom surveillance tools. The signing announcement also lists AB 1883, AB 1979, SB 503, SB 574, AB 2713, SB 1000, SB 1111 and other measures concerning employment, health care, professional practice, provenance and digital replicas. SB 574, chaptered as Chapter 858, bars attorneys from delegating legal practice to generative AI and arbitrators from delegating decisions; it adds verification, confidentiality and court-disclosure duties for attorneys. Each measure’s scope and start date should be checked in its chaptered text before relying on it for a specific obligation. See September 30 news coverage and the SB 574 article.

Customer service chatbots (AB 1609)

Governor Gavin Newsom signed AB 1609 on September 28, 2026. The enacted measure bars a large private business from presenting a customer-service chatbot as human and requires a clear disclosure when a customer could reasonably be misled. It requires covered businesses to offer a way to request a human service agent during regular business hours and make a good-faith effort to connect within 15 minutes or offer an appointment within one business day. The enrolled text defines a large private business as having more than $500 million in national annual gross revenue, provides specified exemptions and permits public prosecutors to seek civil penalties. AB 1609 was chaptered as Chapter 733, Statutes of 2026, on September 28. As a non-urgency regular-session statute, it is scheduled to take effect January 1, 2027 under article IV, section 8(c) of the California Constitution. The governor's signing announcement and the chaptered bill text support these requirements. See September 29 news coverage.

Synthetic performers in advertising (SB 1050)

Governor Gavin Newsom signed SB 1050, authored by Senator Angelique Ashby, on September 16, 2026. SAG-AFTRA sponsored the legislation.

The enrolled text adds Business and Professions Code section 17610. It requires clear and conspicuous disclosure when an advertisement prominently includes a synthetic performer: an AI-generated figure, voice or representation that realistically resembles human performance without being recognizable as an identifiable natural person. Exceptions cover specified promotions for expressive works and AI used solely for translation or accessibility.

An advertising medium served with a qualifying court order and sufficient information identifying an offending advertisement must cease dissemination and accepting payment for it as soon as commercially reasonable and technically feasible. The statute does not generally ban synthetic content.

See September 16, 2026 digest coverage.

Regulations and executive actions

• Executive Order N-9-26 — Independent AI oversight — issued September 18, 2026; accelerates agency implementation and requires recommendations on audits, shutdown mechanisms and incident reporting by November 16.

On September 23, Newsom named Jason Goldman, Gillian Hadfield, Alondra Nelson and Rob Reich to advise on the order's next-stage AI oversight and emergency-shutdown recommendations, due November 16. See September 23 digest coverage.

Vetoed AI measures (September 30, 2026)

Governor Gavin Newsom vetoed AB 2575 (health care services: artificial intelligence), AB 2656 (notice to public employees when AI performs work), and SB 903 (mental health professionals: artificial intelligence) on September 30, 2026. AB 2575 would have addressed clinical judgment when a health-care worker overrides an AI recommendation; the California Nurses Association opposed the veto. The measures did not become law. See October 1 news coverage.

Proposed legislation

• CA A 2025 — Tenancy: digitally altered images: disclosure — received final legislative approval when the Assembly concurred 78–0 in Senate amendments on August 25, 2026, and was ordered engrossed and enrolled; would require disclosure when digitally altered images are used in promotional materials for real property. See: August 25 update.
• CA A 2392 — Public postsecondary education: generative AI procurement standards and training — received final legislative approval when the Assembly concurred 79–0 in Senate amendments on August 26, 2026, and was ordered engrossed and enrolled; would require a joint California Community Colleges and California State University working group, with requested University of California participation, to recommend procurement standards and training before covered generative-AI systems are provided to students, faculty, or staff. See: August 26 update.
• CA A 412 — Generative Artificial Intelligence: Training Data — held under submission by Senate Appropriations on August 13, 2026; would have required generative-AI developers to document covered copyrighted training materials and provide an information-request mechanism for rights holders. See: August 13 update.
• CA S 1159 — Artificial intelligence: transparency and governance — received final legislative approval when the Senate concurred in Assembly amendments 37–0 on August 20, 2026, and was ordered engrossed and enrolled; would exclude AI systems, autonomous agents, robots, and other nonhuman entities from specified public-participation terms while preserving access by people using assistive technology. See: August 20 update.
• CA S 503 — Medical clinical decision-support systems: biased-impact safeguards — received final legislative approval when the Senate concurred 39–0 in Assembly amendments on August 25, 2026, and was ordered engrossed and enrolled; would require developers and deployers to identify foreseeable biased-impact risks, describe intended uses and known risks, monitor deployed systems, and take reasonable mitigation steps. See: August 25 update.
• CA S 574 — Court A.I. Protection Act — received final legislative approval on August 31, 2026, when the Senate concurred 39–0 in Assembly amendments and ordered the bill engrossed and enrolled; would establish generative-AI confidentiality and output-verification duties for attorneys and prohibit arbitrators from delegating decision-making to generative AI. See: August 31 update.
• CA S 947 — Employment: automated decision systems — received final legislative approval on August 31, 2026 and was ordered engrossed and enrolled; would bar employers from relying solely on automated decision systems for discipline, termination, or deactivation and require human corroboration when those systems are primarily relied upon.

Historical tracker

May 1, 2026 tracker snapshot

These entries retain the historical NCSL snapshot used by the former state directory. Status labels, including “pending,” “enacted,” “failed,” and “vetoed,” describe that snapshot, not a current-status assessment. This is not a complete inventory of enacted law.

NCSL’s May 1, 2026 snapshot lists 50 AI-related 2026 measures for California.

Other measures recorded in the snapshot

• CA A 1609 — Customer Service Chatbots; pending; Prohibits a large private business from representing that a customer service chatbot is a human. Requires the large private business to provide certain.... Topics: Private Sector Use.
• CA A 1705 — Pornographic Internet Websites; pending; Requires an operator of a pornographic internet website, among other things, to exercise ordinary care and reasonable diligence to ensure that each inst.... Topics: Deepfake.
• CA A 1766 — Health Curriculum Framework: Human Trafficking; pending; Requires the Instructional Quality Commission, when the health curriculum framework is next revised on or after January 1, 2027, to consider providing f.... Topics: Deepfake, Education Use.
• CA A 1792 — Pupil Instruction: Health Framework: Sexual Health; pending; Requires the Instructional Quality Commission, during the next revision of the publication �Health Framework for California Public Schools,� to consider.... Topics: Deepfake, Education Use.
• CA A 1898 — Workplace Artificial Intelligence Tools; pending; Requires an employer to provide a written notice to a worker that a workplace artificial intelligence tool was used to assist the employer in making emp.... Topics: Effect on Labor/Employment, Private Sector Use, Private Right of Action.
• CA A 1946 — Reporting Mechanism: Child Sexual Abuse Material; pending; Makes a social media company liable to a depicted individual, as defined, for actual and statutory damages, as provided. Imposes a civil penalty on a no.... Topics: Child Pornography, Criminal Use, Deepfake.
• CA A 1979 — Health Care Services: Artificial Intelligence; pending; Requires a health facility, clinic, physician's office, or office or a group practice to ensure that no clinical decision, is based solely on the output.... Topics: Health Use, Private Sector Use.
• CA A 1988 — Companion Chatbots: Crisis Interruption Pauses; pending; Provides for the Preventing AI User Self Endangerment (PAUSE) Act. Requires an operator of companion chatbots to adopt and make publicly available a pol.... Topics: Health Use, Private Sector Use.
• CA A 2023 — Companion Chatbots: Childrens Safety; pending; Relates to artificial intelligence. Requires an operator of a companion chatbot to, on or before specified date to do various things with respect to chi.... Topics: Health Use, Notification, Private Right of Action.
• CA A 2027 — Worker Data: Prohibitions: Artificial Intelligence; pending; Prohibits an employer from using a workers personal information to train an artificial intelligence system to replicate, automate, or replace a workers.... Topics: Private Sector Use, Private Right of Action.
• CA A 2169 — Social Media Platforms: Artificial Intelligence; pending; Enacts the Digital Choice Act. Requires a social media company or a person that makes an artificial intelligence model available to a third party for us.... Topics: Notification, Private Sector Use.
• CA A 2291 — Pupil Safety: Nonconsensual Artificial Intimate Images; pending; Requires the State Department of Education to conduct a study on nonconsensual artificial intimate images involving pupils in the specified grades. Requ.... Topics: Deepfake, Education Use.
• CA A 2403 — Income Tax: Credits: Commercial Production; pending; Excludes any commercial that is created entirely by generative artificial intelligence, as specified, or that utilizes generative artificial intelligenc.... Topics: Deepfake, Private Sector Use, Taxes.
• CA A 2412 — State Agencies or Departments: Public Communications; pending; Provides that existing law requires a State agency or department that utilizes generative artificial intelligence to directly communicate with a person.... Topics: Government Use, Notification.
• CA A 2487 — Artificial Intelligence: Education and Workforce; pending; Enacts the Artificial Intelligence Education and Workforce Development Act to accomplish specified goals, including, among others, empowering and suppor.... Topics: Education Use, Education/Training, Effect on Labor/Employment.
• CA A 2504 — Community Colleges: Artificial Intelligence: Pilot; pending; Relates to the Chancellor of the California Community Colleges. Requires the chancellors office to implement the Future of Creative Industries Pilot Pro.... Topics: Education/Training, Effect on Labor/Employment, Notification, Private Sector Use, Studies.
• CA A 2545 — Report: Labor Force Impact: Artificial Intelligence; pending; Establishes the State Artificial Intelligence Worker Impact Data Assessment Project and establishes the State Artificial Intelligence Worker Impact Data.... Topics: Effect on Labor/Employment, Studies.
• CA A 2575 — Health Care Services: Artificial Intelligence; pending; Requires a health facility, clinic, physician's office, or office of a group practice that uses or deploys a clinical decision support system, as define.... Topics: Health Use, Notification, Private Sector Use.
• CA A 2582 — Crimes: Prostitution; pending; Requires a person who commits prostitution with intent to receive compensation, money, or anything of value from another person to, for a first or secon.... Topics: Criminal Use, Deepfake.
• CA A 2583 — Small Business Advocate: Artificial Intelligence; pending; Enacts the AI for Main Street Act, which would require the Small Business Advocate to provide assistance to small businesses in evaluating artificial in.... Topics: Cybersecurity, Private Sector Use.
• CA A 2653 — State Contracts: Report: Modern Foundation Models; pending; Requires the Department of Industrial Relations, in consultation with the Department of Technology, to convene a Foundation Model Labor and Procurement.... Topics: Government Use.
• CA A 2713 — California AI Transparency Act: System Provenance Data; pending; Provides that the State AI Transparency Act requires a large online platform to detect whether any provenance data that is compliant with widely adopted.... Topics: Deepfake, Notification, Private Sector Use.
• CA S 1000 — California AI Transparency Act; pending; Provides that the California AI Transparency Act requires a covered provider to make available an AI detection tool at no cost to the user. Provides tha.... Topics: Private Sector Use, Provenance.
• CA S 1011 — Energy: Utility Infrastructure AI Safety; pending; Requires every public utility to furnish and maintain adequate, efficient, just, and reasonable service, instrumentalities, equipment, and facilities, a.... Topics: Energy.
• CA S 1015 — Crimes: Minors; pending; Makes any adult person who recruits, induces, coerces, or persuades a minor to commit an illegal act against another minor, or to solicit physical harm,.... Topics: Child Pornography, Criminal Use, Deepfake.
• CA S 1050 — False Advertising: Synthetic Digital Performers; pending; Makes it an unlawful advertising practice for a person to create and cause to be published in an advertising medium an advertisement that includes a syn.... Topics: Deepfake, Notification, Private Sector Use. Current update: signed September 16, 2026; see SB 1050 coverage.
• CA S 1111 — Digital Replicas; pending; Provides that existing law creates a civil cause of action against any person who knowingly uses the name, voice, signature, photograph, or likeness of.... Topics: Deepfake, Judicial Use.
• CA S 1142 — Digital Dignity Act; pending; Enacts the Digital Dignity Act. Provides that subject to specified liability a person who, by distributing content with actual knowledge that the conten.... Topics: Deepfake.
• CA S 1146 — Advertisement Claims: Health Related Consumer Products; pending; Requires, subject to specified exceptions, a person who creates or causes to be created an advertisement that includes the image, audio, or video of a d.... Topics: Deepfake, Health Use, Notification, Private Sector Use.
• CA S 1217 — Nonconsensual Intimate Image Clearinghouse; pending; Requires the Department of Justice to establish the Nonconsensual Intimate Image Clearinghouse to allow individuals who were exploited in the State to s.... Topics: Child Pornography, Criminal Use, Deepfake.
• CA S 1248 — State Agencies: Automated Decision Systems; pending; Imposes certain restrictions on the use of an automated decision system by a state agency to confer services, defined as, among other things, the issuan.... Topics: Government Use, Notification, Responsible Use.
• CA S 1276 — Crimes: Sexual Exploitation of a Child; pending; Makes a person guilty of a misdemeanor or a felony if the person downloads, streams, or accesses through electronic or digital media material that depic.... Topics: Child Pornography, Criminal Use, Deepfake.
• CA S 300 — Companion Chatbots; pending; Require a companion chatbot operator to take the above actions when it has constructive knowledge that a user is a minor. Requires an operator to preven.... Topics: Notification, Private Sector Use.
• CA S 607 — California Institutes for Science and Innovation; pending; Provides that existing law authorizes the Regents of the University of California to establish 4 California Institutes for Science and Innovation at sep.... Topics: Education Use.
• CA S 719 — Department of Technology: Inventory; pending; Provides that existing law, until January 1, 2029, requires the Department of Technology to annually submit to certain legislative committees a report r.... Topics: Government Use, Oversight/Governance.
• CA S 903 — Mental Health Professionals: Artificial Intelligence; pending; Regulates the use of artificial intelligence by licensed professionals providing psychotherapy services. Prohibits an individual, corporation, or entity.... Topics: Health Use, Notification.
• CA S 916 — Civil Actions: Housing Development Projects; pending; Provides that existing law provides that in a civil action brought by a plaintiff to challenge a housing development project that meets or exceeds the r.... Topics: Deepfake, Private Sector Use.
• CA S 951 — Employment: Technological Displacement: Notice; pending; Requires an employer to provide a written technology hiring disruption notice to the Employment Development Department and the local workforce investmen.... Topics: Effect on Labor/Employment, Notification, Private Sector Use.
• CA S 430 — Local Agencies: Automated Decision Systems; failed; Imposes certain restrictions on the use of an automated decision system by a local agency to confer supportive services, permits, or licenses. Includes.... Topics: Government Use.

September 2026 election deepfake legislation

On September 19, 2026, Governor Newsom signed AB 686, extending the sunset of the Elections Code section 20010 candidate-media framework to January 1, 2031, and AB 502, modifying materially deceptive election-communication rules. See September 20 digest coverage.

AB 502 became Chapter 333 on September 19, 2026, as an urgency statute taking effect immediately. Its amendment to Elections Code section 20012 covers specified materially deceptive communications knowingly distributed with malice: candidate-related communications during the 30 days before an election, and election-administration communications from 30 days before through 38 days after. It also revises the satire/parody exception.

San Diego police-report exploration (October 12, 2026)

Voice of San Diego reporting distributed by AP on October 12 says the San Diego Police Department is exploring AI-assisted police-report writing. A July 31 request for information seeks a tool that would leave officers and investigators in control of report content and structure. Department spokesperson Ashley Nicholes described the work as an exploration phase and said elected officials and community members would be consulted if the department proceeds. The request is for information gathering and planning. The report explains that the department’s earlier restriction covered AI platforms it had not approved, and describes California requirements for AI-use disclosure and retention of source recordings for audits. Community critics and legal researchers raise concerns about errors, bias and the reliability of narratives used by prosecutors, defence lawyers, judges and juries.

Related people

• Scott Wiener — profile, legislative records and policy statements.

October 1, 2026: OpenAI cybersecurity subpoena

Attorney General Rob Bonta announced an investigative subpoena seeking information from OpenAI about cybersecurity incidents and risks involving its AI models. The subpoena was served September 30 in an ongoing inquiry; see October 1 news coverage.

Related articles

• United States policy on catastrophic AI risk

Data-centre oversight package (September 21, 2026)

On September 21, 2026, Governor Gavin Newsom signed seven data-centre bills addressing resource disclosures, electricity costs and local oversight of AI infrastructure. The measures were chaptered consecutively:

• AB 1577, Chapter 434 requires data-centre operators to report specified facility and energy information to the California Energy Commission and specified information when seeking local land-use approval. The commission must add a data-centre load-trend assessment beginning with the 2029 integrated energy policy report and publish submitted information annually in anonymized, aggregated form.
• AB 2383, Chapter 435 requires electric-service tariffs for covered data centres, including transmission, distribution and generation provisions intended to allocate infrastructure and procurement costs. Community-choice aggregators and electric-service providers must adopt qualifying generation tariffs by January 1, 2028.
• AB 2469, Chapter 436 conditions local approval of covered construction or expansion on disclosures and planning that include a water-supply assessment, projected use and efficiency measures, workforce information and, beginning January 1, 2028, a water-scarcity plan. The applicant assumes specified water-infrastructure costs.
• AB 2619, Chapter 437 requires operators to give water suppliers and local licensing authorities good-faith estimates of expected water demand before initial licensing and to report prior-year water use with renewal applications. It also adds data-centre demand to urban-water planning requirements.
• SB 886, Chapter 438, the California Technology Innovation and Ratepayer Protection Act, directs the Public Utilities Commission to establish or update interconnection and retail-service tariffs by January 1, 2028. The rules must address stranded costs and cost shifts; specified transmission-level agreements entered on or after January 1, 2027 fall within the act.
• SB 887, Chapter 439 bars categorical environmental exemptions for covered data-centre projects and allows qualifying projects to seek environmental-leadership streamlining only after satisfying specified energy, water, fuel, ratepayer and greenhouse-gas conditions.
• SB 1168, Chapter 440 directs the Public Utilities Commission to assess rate structures that make data centres bear reasonable transmission, distribution, load-growth and procurement costs while reducing pressure on residential ratepayers.

CalMatters groups the package into electricity-cost allocation, water and resource reporting, and environmental-review requirements. It reports that industry representatives warn the package could discourage investment, while supporters seek protections for residents and utility customers. See September 21 news coverage.

Related October 12, 2026 news

• October 12 News: San Diego AI police-report exploration and accountability

Public recommendations for AI governance (October 13, 2026)

Governor Gavin Newsom announced a report on October 13, 2026, summarising public input from the statewide Engaged California AI-policy engagement. According to the announcement, the strongest themes were accountability for harms caused by AI companies, protection of people and the environment from AI resource demands, and rules for where and how AI can be used safely. The recommendations are intended to inform state policy decisions. See October 13 news archive.