California AI Verification Organizations Law (SB 813)
- Introduced
- Passed Senate
- Passed House
- Became Law
Signed into law Sep 9, 2026 (Chapter 179); takes effect Jan 1, 2027
Has California certify private AI auditors as state-approved "independent verification organizations" (IVOs), with power to suspend or revoke that status.
Latest update
Reclaim The Net: Newsom Wants an AI Kill Switch. Who Gets the Keys?
The bill
California SB 813 (2025-2026) official recordAB 1405 official recordKey facts
- Where
- California, United States
- Bill number
- California SB 813 (2025-2026)
- Status
- Law
- Introduced
- California SB 813 (2025-2026): February 21, 2025
AB 1405: February 21, 2025 - Threat
- Medium
- Last update
- September 22, 2026
Topics
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What it does
SB 813 adds Chapter 14 (Sections 8898 to 8898.4) to the California Government Code. By January 1, 2028, the Government Operations Agency must write application requirements for AI auditors that want designation as an "independent verification organization" (IVO), set the criteria for designation, and write procedures to suspend or terminate a designation. Applicants must disclose their qualifications and the benchmarks, metrics and methods they plan to use. The criteria cover risk-assessment expertise, technical staff, conflicts of interest and independence from the company being assessed. An IVO may take payment from that company at market rates, as long as payment does not depend on the result. Grounds for suspension include failure to follow standards, misrepresentation, conflicts of interest, poor records, lapses in cybersecurity and conduct that calls the IVO's integrity into question. The agency must convene working groups that include engineers from competing AI companies and "AI safety experts," and report their findings to the Legislature. Designated IVOs must file annual reports summarizing their standards and methods, and any changes to their funding or governance that bear on independence, and they may redact trade secrets and security information. The law itself is voluntary. It states that it does not require any developer or operator to hire an IVO or undergo an audit to build or run AI in California, and it does not by itself create liability for failing to meet its standards. It gives no safe harbor: in a lawsuit over harm from an AI system, an audit done to a standard under the chapter is "relevant to, but not conclusive of" the case.
What’s at stake
On its own, SB 813 builds a state list of approved AI evaluators and makes no one use them. That list is the foundation for something bigger. Nine days after the bill was signed, Governor Newsom's Executive Order N-9-26 moved its deadline up to May 1, 2027 and ordered the same agency to report by November 16, 2026 on the feasibility of requiring frontier AI companies to embed a state-designated IVO inside their labs, to have their safety filings verified against standards an IVO approves, and to build a "kill switch" whose efficacy an IVO checks on an ongoing basis. The companion law, AB 1405 (Bauer-Kahan, Chapter 178), adds a mandatory registry: from 2029, only auditors on the state registry may sell or conduct audits of AI compliance with state law. Together they put a state-designated layer of evaluators between developers and the systems they build, and give the state a lever over AI development, including over models people use to speak and publish.
Our take
SB 813 forces no one to hire an auditor today. What it builds is the machinery: a class of AI evaluators that the state designates and can revoke. The Governor's executive order has already asked for the next step, with designated monitors embedded in AI labs and an IVO-verified kill switch on frontier models. A voluntary list with that plan attached deserves opposition now, before it becomes a license to build software.
Timeline
Statutory deadline for the Government Operations Agency to set IVO application requirements, criteria and suspension proceduresUpcoming
Law takes effect (standard date for non-urgency California statutes)Upcoming
Reclaim The Net: Newsom Wants an AI Kill Switch. Who Gets the Keys?Latest
Signed by Governor Newsom; chaptered as Chapter 179, Statutes of 2026
Passed the Assembly 67-6; Senate concurred in Assembly amendments 39-0
Passed Assembly Appropriations 11-3 as amended
Passed Assembly Privacy and Consumer Protection Committee 11-2 as amended
Passed the Senate 31-7 and sent to the Assembly
Passed Senate Appropriations 5-2
Rewritten with author's amendments; re-referred to Senate Appropriations
Held in Senate Appropriations Committee
Passed Senate Judiciary Committee 10-0 as amended; sent to Senate Appropriations
Introduced in the Senate
The record
Sponsors
Sen. Jerry McNerney (D), Coauthor: Asm. Rebecca Bauer-Kahan (D), Coauthor: Asm. Josh Lowenthal (D)
Committee
Senate Judiciary Committee, Senate Appropriations Committee, Assembly Privacy and Consumer Protection Committee, Assembly Appropriations Committee
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