Several technology-focused laws await signing or rejection from Gov. Gavin Newsom, as a deadline to approve new laws.
Among the more prominent laws is Sen. Scott Weiner’s Senate Bill 53, also known as the transparency of the Frontier Artificial Intelligence Act. Earlier this week, Newsom announced it plans to sign the bill to the law despite its final ditch lobbying efforts from technology industry groups.
The bill, with a wide range of strokes, requires new security protocols related to AI frontier models, new whistleblower protection for those working with these models, and creates a consortium called Calcompute within the Government Operating Agency (Govops).
The technology industry (large names like Openai and Meta) have spoken out about opposition to the law, citing concerns about duplication and unnecessary deficits. Opponents of the bill advocate for a more collaborative approach.
“If there is a genuine interest in safety, the nation believes that frontier model developers should encourage and encourage them to partner with the best institutions to carry out the most sophisticated and sophisticated reviews,” Christopher Leharn, Openai’s Chief Global Affairs Officer, wrote in a letter to Newsom.
It is unclear when he plans to put the pen on paper, but it must occur before the October 12th legislative deadline.
Meanwhile, Senate Bill 7 places new guardrails in the employment-related automated decision system (ADS). If advertising is used to make employment-related decisions to employers under the law, the employer must be notified.
Senate Bill 446 is related to data breach notifications. With certain exceptions to respond to law enforcement investigations, data breach disclosure will be required within 30 days of discovery. According to voting history, the bill was very well received by both homes and multiple committees.
Congressional Bill 979 passed both the home and committee review in colours that fly along the road to the governor’s desk. The bill requires California Cybersecurity Integration Centers to create a “California AI Cybersecurity Collaboration Playbook” with the help of information security and government offices.
The Center will be imposed “review federal government requirements, standards and industry best practices as specified, and use these resources to inform you of the development of the California AI Cybersecurity Collaboration Playbook scheduled for January 1, 2027.”
Congressional Bill 853, also known as the California AI Transparency Act, establishes new rules for generator AI systems that have more than 1 million visitors each month or are publicly available within the state. Under the bill, platform owners must provide free tools that can determine whether content that is image, video, audio content, or a combination of them has been created or modified by the person’s generated artificial intelligence system. The bill also sets rules for AI disclosure on some websites and outlines new requirements for “potential disclosure” of audio, video and photo “capture devices” options.
