California's nation-leading AI framework just got stronger, Governor Newsom signs more first-in-the-nation worker protections and more

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Sep 30, 2026

California's nation-leading AI framework just got stronger, Governor Newsom signs more first-in-the-nation worker protections and more

Signs executive order declaring the obvious

What you need to know:  Governor Newsom signs new, first-in-the-nation protections for California workers, creating stronger safeguards for AI involvement in healthcare and building stronger trust and transparency for people using AI – all while signing another executive order to actually define artificial intelligence.

SACRAMENTO – Advancing on his work to create a strong AI safety framework, Governor Gavin Newsom is continuing to cement California's AI safety framework by signing new laws to protect workers and consumers – and signing an executive order permanently declaring Artificial Intelligence to be called "Artificial Intelligence" in California.

Super intelligence is clearly not coming from the White House – that's why California continues to lead. AI should expand opportunity – not come at the expense of workers and families. As this technology reshapes the workplace, California is putting people at the center, ensuring we all have a voice in the decisions shaping their future.

Governor Gavin Newsom

Protecting workers

Building on the Governor's nation-leading executive order to prepare workers and businesses for potential AI disruption, new first-in-the-nation legislation signed will protect people in the workplace from the impacts of artificial intelligence, automated technology, and AI-powered workplace surveillance.

✅ Ensuring real people review automated employment actions by prohibiting employers from only relying on AI when making a disciplinary action or termination decision.

✅ Providing more transparency by requiring employers to provide if a mass layoff, relocation, or termination is caused by an AI system.

✅ Protecting employee privacy by banning the use of workplace surveillance tools by employers in a bathroom located in the workplace.

✅ Requiring California public higher education institutions to create training for students, faculty, and staff on AI training and procurement.

✅ Keeping lawyers responsible for practicing law by prohibiting them from fully handing over core legal work, such as drafting briefs or providing legal judgment, to AI.

"Workers across California have demanded that our state lead the way in regulating AI in our workplaces. And today, we see that begin to happen," said the California Federation of Labor Unions, AFL-CIO President Lorena Gonzalez speaking on SB 947, SB 951, AB 1331, and AB 1883. "By signing these four first-in-the-nation bills, Governor Newsom has shown the country how we can begin to put guardrails on AI at work to ensure human oversight over this technology, limit surveillance, and put workers first. We must continue to push for regulations to ensure we control this no technology, not be controlled by it."

Governor Gavin Newsom signs legislation to strengthen worker protections with legislators, labor leaders, and workers.

A b-roll package of the Governor signing this legislation can be downloaded here.

Empowering doctors to make the final call

Californians should be able to trust that the doctors and healthcare professionals caring for them can use their training, experience, and judgment even when AI is part of the process. These new protections help keep people, not algorithms, at the center of healthcare decisions.

✅ Ensuring doctors and licensed providers can use their own professional judgment when AI or other clinical decision tools are used in patient care.

✅ Requiring developers of clinical decision tools to take reasonable steps to reduce known or predictable bias in how these systems are used.

Know what's real. Know what's AI.

These new protections strengthen transparency and help prevent deception.

✅ Prohibiting the deletion of a digital watermark and allowing access to metadata to make it easier to determine whether it was AI- or user-generated.

✅ Strengthening the California AI Transparency Act to address evolving technology and ensure Californians can identify AI-generated material.

✅ Making clear that public comments at local government meetings must come from real people, not AI bots.

Preventing exploitation

California is taking on fraudsters and putting in safeguards to protect people's image from being exploited online.

✅ Updating California's civil and criminal laws to protect likeness rights and prevent false impersonation, keeping pace with the challenges posed by AI deepfakes.

✅ Going after fraudsters who try to steal, defraud, or impersonate Californians, including by creating explicit content without their consent, using an AI deepfake.

Keeping Californians safe

California is acting now to keep powerful biological tools out of the wrong hands.

✅ Requiring gene synthesis companies to follow safety guidelines, verifying who their customers are, and check what genetic material they are sending out for research on diseases like Polio and Ebola.

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Governor Newsom today signed the following legislation:

• AB 1331 by Assemblymember Sade Elhawary (D-South Los Angeles) -–- Workplace surveillance. A signing message can be found here.
• AB 1864 by Assemblymember Marc Berman (D-Menlo Park) — Gene synthesis equipment manufacturers and providers.
• AB 1883 by Assemblymember Isaac Bryan (D-Los Angeles) — Workplace surveillance tools. A signing message can be found here.
• AB 1979 by Assemblymember Mia Bonta (D-Oakland) — Health care services: artificial intelligence.
• AB 2392 by Assemblymember Mike Fong (D-Alhambra) — Public postsecondary education: generative artificial intelligence systems: procurement standards: training.
• AB 2713 by Assemblymember Buffy Wicks (D-Oakland) — California AI Transparency Act: system provenance data.
• SB 503 by Senator Akilah Weber Pierson (D-San Diego) — Health care services: artificial intelligence.
• SB 574 Senator Thomas Umberg (D-Santa Ana) — Attorneys, arbitrators, judicial officers, and alternative resolution providers.
• SB 947 by Senator Jerry McNerney (D-Pleasanton) — Employment: automated decision systems.
• SB 951 by Senator Eloise Gómez Reyes (D-Colton) — Employment: technological displacement: notice.
• SB 1000 by Senator Josh Becker (D‑Menlo Park) — California AI Transparency Act.
• SB 1111 by Senator Angelique Ashby (D-Sacramento) — Digital replicas.
• SB 1159 by Senator Christopher Cabaldon (D-Yolo) — Artificial intelligence: transparency and governance.

California's nation-leading framework

Today's announcement comes on the heels of the Governor's signature on a bill creating first-in-the-nation safeguards and accountability measures. Earlier this month, the Governor signed into law Senate Bill 813 (McNerney),  establishing a framework for independent verification organizations that can assess AI systems and models for safety and risk. Governor Newsom also signed AB 1405 (Bauer-Kahan), creating a state registry for AI auditors that assess AI systems and models for compliance with state law and establishing standards for their independence, transparency, and integrity.

Shortly after, the Governor issued an executive order to dramatically accelerate the implementation of the new third-party oversight of safety and security risks in AI systems, as well as independent audits. The executive order also convened a group of world-leading experts to provide, within two months, a guide for California to reinforce and strengthen its AI safety and security laws. Proposals under consideration include requiring independent third parties to write safety plans for frontier AI companies, as well as requiring companies to develop an emergency shutoff, or "kill switch," for frontier models.

This builds on the Governor's nation-leading work, which has been underway for for years. Beginning with his first-in-nation 2023 executive order on generative AI, Governor Newsom has pursued executive action, legislation passed in partnership with the Legislature, regulation, procurement, and public-private partnerships to address nearly every major area of AI policy:

✅ Frontier AI safety: In 2025, Governor Newsom signed SB 53, the Transparency in Frontier Artificial Intelligence Act, the nation's first AI safety law. It requires frontier AI developers to publicly disclose safety frameworks, report specified critical safety incidents to the state, and protect whistleblowers who report serious risks.

✅ Independent AI oversight: In 2026, Governor Newsom signed SB 813, making California the first state in the nation to establish a framework for certifying independent verification organizations with sufficient expertise and demonstrated independence from AI companies to objectively assess AI systems and models for safety and risk. He also signed AB 1405, establishing a state registry for AI auditors and standards for their independence, transparency and integrity.

✅ Child safety standards for AI companions: This year, Governor Newsom signed the bipartisan Adam's Law, requiring safeguards around companion chatbots used by children, including suicide and self-harm crisis protocols, parental controls and notifications when safety settings are disabled. It is the first law in the country requiring independent child-safety audits and comprehensive risk assessments prior to release. California also enacted laws to ban toys containing AI companion chatbots for five years; prohibit use of student personal information to train AI models; and expand protections against AI-generated child sexual abuse material.

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✅ Social media and children: Governor Newsom signed the strongest-in-nation legislation prohibiting social-media companies from providing users under 16 with addictive features including autoplay and algorithmic feeds based on user history and profiles. California has enacted nation-leading requirements for responsible AI and social media use for children, including warning labels for young users, required age verification signals, guidance to protect kids from after-school cyberbullying, and prohibiting online platforms from knowingly providing an addictive feed to a minor without parental consent.

✅ Deep fakes and synthetic content: In nation-leading action, California banned and cracked down on sexually explicit deepfakes, required AI watermarking, addressed deceptive AI-generated election content and required transparency around AI training data.

✅ Protecting privacy and civil liberties: Governor Newsom signed the Delete Act, a first-in-the-nation privacy law allowing Californians to direct registered data brokers to delete their personal information. California subsequently launched DROP, which enables people to submit a single deletion request to registered data brokers. In March 2026, Governor Newsom also issued an executive order strengthening privacy and civil-liberties protections for state AI procurement. CalPrivacy has separately adopted protections involving automated decision-making technology.

✅ Workers and AI disruption: Governor Newsom signed a first-in-the-nation executive order addressing AI's economic and labor impacts, including expanded tracking of AI's economic effects and work to adapt job-training and public-benefit programs. California has also launched an AI Unemployment Tracker and solicited statewide public input on AI's economic impacts through Engaged California.

✅ Cybersecurity: Governor Newsom launched a first-in-the-nation AI Cyber Defense Program to use AI to identify vulnerabilities, harden networks, and support incident response. California is also establishing an AI Cybersecurity Officer in each agency and working with frontier AI companies and critical-infrastructure partners on response protocols and tabletop exercises.

✅ AI-enabled fraud: Governor Newsom launched a Tech Fraud Task Force to combat AI-enabled fraud. California has also acted against AI-generated robocall scams and addressed algorithmic pricing through state antitrust law.

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