Two bills, one machinery
Governor Gavin Newsom signed two artificial intelligence bills on 9 September that between them build the first state-level apparatus for auditing AI systems in the United States.
Assembly Bill 1405, written by Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan of Orinda, establishes a state registry for AI auditors and sets standards for their independence, transparency and integrity. Senate Bill 813, written by Senator Jerry McNerney of Pleasanton, establishes a framework for independent verification organisations that can assess AI systems and models for compliance with state law.
One bill answers who is allowed to audit. The other answers what an audit is for. Neither works without the other, which is why they were signed together.
The gap the registry is meant to fill
AI auditing already exists as a business. What has not existed is any public standard for who counts as an auditor, or any way for a company, a regulator or a court to tell a rigorous assessment from a paid endorsement. A registry with independence requirements is an attempt to make that distinction legible.
“Third-party auditors are essential to ensuring AI is safe for our communities and critical infrastructure,” Bauer-Kahan said in the governor’s announcement.
A state acting because Washington has not
McNerney was blunter about the reason. “California is taking the lead on assessing AI’s safety risks, since Washington, D.C., is unable or unwilling to do so,” he said.
Newsom used the same announcement to call on the federal government to put national rules in place — regulation that matches the pace of the technology while still permitting responsible development. The pattern is familiar from California’s emissions and privacy legislation: a state large enough to set a de facto national standard does so, and then asks to be superseded.
What to watch
The substance is now in the implementation. A registry is only as strong as its independence test, and a verification framework is only as strong as the criteria an assessor is asked to check against. Watch for the rulemaking that defines both, and for whether the frontier labs — most of them headquartered in the state — put their models through it voluntarily before anyone requires them to.
