SACRAMENTO, the United States, Sept. 10– California Governor Gavin Newsom on Wednesday signed into law two artificial intelligence bills, Senate Bill 813 and Assembly Bill 1405, that his office described as first-in-the-nation safeguards.
The Senate Bill sets criteria for designating independent AI verification organizations, while the Assembly Bill requires the California Government Operations Agency to establish an AI Auditor Registry by Jan. 1, 2029, and bars unregistered persons from conducting covered AI audits from that date. Both laws define a “covered AI audit” as an assessment of internal controls, processes or systems needed for compliance with state law.
The Business Software Alliance, a software industry trade association, opposed the bills, saying they would create a California-specific AI auditing and standards regime while national and international AI standards were still developing, potentially adding to regulatory fragmentation.
Meanwhile, OpenAI said Wednesday in a blog post that it supported both measures and urged the U.S. Congress to adopt “mandatory, capability-based” national AI safety requirements.
Newsom previously vetoed a broader frontier AI bill in 2024. He then said that it would apply stringent standards based on model size without adequately considering whether systems were deployed in high-risk environments.
Newsom’s office said Wednesday that the governor called on the federal government to establish robust national AI regulations.(Namibia Daily News/Xinhua)
