CaliforniaAI regulation

Regulation Status

• California is the most active US state on AI regulation, having enacted more than two dozen targeted AI laws since 2024 rather than a single omnibus statute; Governor Newsom vetoed the broad frontier-safety bill SB 1047 in September 2024 but signed a narrower successor, SB 53 (the Transparency in Frontier Artificial Intelligence Act), on 29 September 2025, making California the first US state to impose a binding transparency-and-safety framework on large frontier-model developers (effective 1 January 2026).
• State law is sectoral and disclosure-focused, spanning election and political-advertising deepfakes (AB 2839, AB 2355, AB 2655), bot and synthetic-media disclosures (California Bot Act, California AI Transparency Act), non-consensual intimate imagery and CSAM (SB 926, SB 981, Penal Code amendments), voice- and likeness/digital-replica rights (AB 1836, AB 2602), healthcare AI (AB 3030, SB 1120, AB 489), government and law-enforcement use of AI (Government AI Inventory Law, SB 896, SB 524), a uniform statutory AI definition (AB 2885), training-data transparency (AB 2013), and consumer-protection duties for companion chatbots, AI-generated calls, and digitally altered real-estate images (SB 243, AB 2905, AB 723).
• California has also added cross-cutting rules on AI-related data, liability, and markets, including a CCPA amendment clarifying that personal information can exist in AI systems capable of outputting it (AB 1008), data-broker disclosures about sharing or selling consumer data to generative-AI developers (SB 361), a bar on defendants arguing that AI autonomously caused alleged harm (AB 316), and Cartwright Act restrictions on common pricing algorithms (AB 325).
• Beyond statutes, the California Privacy Protection Agency finalised CCPA regulations on automated decision-making technology, risk assessments, and cybersecurity audits (effective 1 January 2026, with ADMT compliance phased into 2027), and the Civil Rights Council's employment automated-decision-system regulations took effect 1 October 2025; enforcement runs primarily through the Attorney General, sector regulators, and private rights of action, though California's expansive AI agenda now faces federal preemption pressure following Executive Order 14365 (December 2025), which directs a Department of Justice task force to challenge state AI laws.