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MARIN COUNTY – Today, Governor Gavin Newsom, joined by First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom, and legislators signed landmark bipartisan legislation strengthening California’s nation-leading protections for children online and when using artificial intelligence (AI). The new laws strengthen safeguards for companion chatbots, prohibit social media platforms from offering addictive features to users under 16, and expand privacy protections for children. 

Governor Newsom signs first-in-the-nation AI safeguards to protect Californians, calls on the federal government to do its part

What you need to know: Governor Newsom signed two bills strengthening California’s AI safeguards by establishing first-in-the-nation standards for third-party audits and independent assessments of AI systems — increasing transparency and accountability as the technology rapidly advances.

For four years, Jacob Hilton worked for one of the most influential startups in the Bay Area — OpenAI. His research helped test and improve the truthfulness of AI models such as ChatGPT. He believes artificial intelligence can benefit society, but he also recognizes the serious risks if the technology is left unchecked.

Hilton was among 13 current and former OpenAI and Google employees who this month signed an open letter that called for more whistleblower protections, citing broad confidentiality agreements as problematic.

Lawmakers in California last month advanced about 30 new measures on artificial intelligence aimed at protecting consumers and jobs, one of the biggest efforts yet to regulate the new technology.

While the federal government appears content to sit back and wait, more than 40 U.S. states are considering hundreds of AI regulation bills. 

California, with its status as a tech-forward state and huge economy, has a chance to lead the way. So much so, in fact, that the European Union is trying to coordinate with the state on AI laws. The EU opened an office in San Francisco in 2022 and dispatched a tech envoy, Gerard de Graaf, to better communicate about laws and regulations around AI. 

Republican Assemblymember Juan Alanis, a former Stanislaus County sheriff’s sergeant, and San Ramon Democrat Rebecca Bauer-Kahan, a women’s rights advocate, may not have a lot in common. 

But last week they stood on the floor of the California Assembly and persuaded their colleagues to advance legislation that would have California join a handful of conservative states in passing laws requiring pornography sites to verify the ages of visitors to ensure they’re adults. 

California legislators plan to introduce a bill Thursday that would bolster efforts by Holocaust survivors, their heirs and other victims to recover artwork and other property stolen from them as a result of political persecution.

State lawmakers unveiled two more bills Wednesday to the growing pile of legislation aimed at reigning in the potential worst effects of artificial intelligence.

With the primaries in the rearview mirror and the November general election just eight months away, lawmakers have introduced bills focusing on the technology’s potential to confuse and deceive voters, and otherwise disrupt democracy.

It was a decade ago when California became the first state in the nation to ban single-use plastic bags, ushering in a wave of anti-plastic legislation from coast to coast.

But in the years after California seemingly kicked its plastic grocery sack habit, material recovery facilities and environmental activists noticed a peculiar trend: Plastic bag waste by weight was increasing to unprecedented levels.

The top lawmaker in the California legislature overseeing privacy legislation wants to do more to protect children online and also guard against the harms of artificial intelligence.

Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan (D), the new chair of the state Assembly Privacy and Consumer Protection Committee, said in an interview that she wants to continue the legislature’s history of being at the forefront of online safety for children. She also intends to play a significant role over AI legislation because any artificial intelligence bills will likely have to pass through her panel.