This bill designates March 21, 2026, as California Women in STEM Day to recognize the contributions of women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics fields. The measure requires state officials to issue a proclamation announcing this specific date and the purpose of the observance. As a commemorative resolution, it does not alter laws, allocate funding, or create new programs, but rather establishes an official day for public acknowledgment.
This bill designates March 22, 2026, as California STEAM Robotics Day to recognize the importance of robotics within science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics education. The measure directly affects schools and educational organizations across the state by providing a specific date for them to host events or activities focused on robotics. It does not create new funding, change laws, or mandate specific actions, but rather serves as a formal proclamation to raise awareness about the field. The legislation was passed by the state legislature and signed into law as part of the 2026 statutes.
Existing law prohibits a public agency, which includes the state, a city, a county, a city and county, or any agency or political subdivision of the state, a city, a county, or a city and county, including, but not limited to, a law enforcement agency, from selling, sharing, or transferring automated license plate recognition (ALPR) information, except to another public agency, and only as otherwise permitted by law. Existing law defines ALPR information as information or data collected through the use of an ALPR system. This bill would provide that "public agency" does not include a transportation agency, a public transit operator, or a local department of transportation or public works department, as specified. The bill would, beginning January 1, 2026, require new, updated, expansions of, or addendums of contractual agreements with ALPR vendors, manufacturers, or suppliers to mandate that no default access is provided to any national ALPR database and that an agency's collected scans are by default not accessible to any other agency, and would impose new requirements on sharing between California state law enforcement agencies. The bill would authorize a law enforcement agency to use ALPR information only for purposes of locating vehicles or persons when either are reasonably suspected of being involved in the commission of a public offense. The bill would prohibit a public agency from retaining ALPR information for more than 60 days after the date of collection if it does not match information on an authorized hot list, as defined, and as of January 1, 2026, would require a public agency to delete all ALPR information that has been held for more than 60 days and does not match information on an authorized hot list within 14 days. By imposing new requirements on public agencies, which include local agencies, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. Existing law defines an ALPR operator as a person that operates an ALPR system, which does not include a transportation agency. Existing law defines an ALPR end-user a person that accesses or uses an ALPR system, which does not include, among other things, a transportation agency. This bill would additionally exclude from the definitions of "ALPR operator" and "ALPR end-user" a public transit operator, a local department of transportation or public works department, or an airport or airport operator, as provided. Existing law requires an ALPR operator and ALPR end-user to maintain reasonable security procedures and practices, including operational, administrative, technical, and physical safeguards, to protect ALPR information from unauthorized access, destruction, use, modification, or disclosure. This bill would require those security procedures and practices to include safeguards for managing which employees can see the data from their systems, as specified, and requiring data security training and data privacy training for all employees that access ALPR information. Existing law requires an ALPR operator and ALPR end-user to implement a usage and privacy policy that includes, among other things, a description of the job title or other designation of the employees and independent contractors who are authorized to access and use ALPR information. This bill would require the usage and privacy policy to identify what purpose employees and independent contractors access and use ALPR information for. The bill would also require the Department of Justice to, contingent upon an appropriation of sufficient funds, conduct annual random audits on a public agency that is an ALPR operator or ALPR end-user to determine whether they have implemented and are adhering to that usage and privacy policy. Existing law requires an ALPR operator that accesses or provides access to ALPR information to require that ALPR information only be used for the authorized purposes described in the usage and privacy policy and to maintain a record of that access that includes, among other things, the purpose for accessing the information. This bill would instead require that record of access maintained by the ALPR operator to include the case file number or task force name, as applicable, that justifies the search query, and would provide that no queries shall be allowed without a log entry with a valid and current case file number or task force name from the agency conducting the query. The bill would include findings that changes proposed by this bill address a matter of statewide concern rather than a municipal affair and, therefore, apply to all cities, including charter cities. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above.
Existing law establishes the State Air Resources Board as the state agency responsible for monitoring and regulating sources emitting greenhouse gases. Existing law requires the state board to establish a Carbon Capture, Removal, Utilization, and Storage Program, as provided, to evaluate the efficacy, safety, and viability of carbon capture, utilization, or storage technologies and carbon dioxide removal technologies and facilitate the capture and sequestration of carbon dioxide from those technologies, where appropriate. Existing law requires the Secretary of the Natural Resources Agency, in consultation with the state board, to publish a framework for governing agreements regarding 2 or more tracts of land overlying the same geologic storage reservoir or reservoirs for purposes of managing, developing, and operating a carbon dioxide capture, removal, or sequestration project, as provided. This bill would require the state board to establish and administer the Carbon Dioxide Removal Purchase Program as a competitive grant process for eligible carbon dioxide removal projects, as specified. The bill would require the state board, on or before January 1, 2028, and annually thereafter, to conduct and publish on its internet website a survey of carbon dioxide removal projects existing or in development within the state, and, on or before December 31, 2027, and annually thereafter, until December 31, 2035, to publish on its internet website a report describing Carbon Dioxide Removal Purchase Program activities completed and carbon dioxide removal projects to date, as specified. The bill would require the state board, on or after July 1, 2026, but on or before December 31, 2035, to fund carbon dioxide removal projects in an amount totaling $50,000,000. The bill would authorize up to 10% of that amount to be used to supplement necessary administrative costs in establishing the program. The bill would prohibit carbon dioxide removal projects from exceeding $25,000,000 of grants toward qualified carbon dioxide removals in any one of specified project categories or $12,500,000 of grants towards any one individual carbon dioxide removal project sponsor, except as specified. The bill would require that eligible carbon dioxide removal projects permanently retire the contracted tons of removed carbon dioxide from any future carbon dioxide removals credit issuance. The bill would require the state board, on or before January 1, 2028, to adopt guidelines, including the definition of an eligible carbon dioxide removal project, for the program, which the bill would require to be consistent with certain provisions governing carbon dioxide capture, removal, or sequestration projects, as specified. The bill would make implementation of these provisions contingent upon an appropriation by the Legislature for purposes of the program. The bill would require all funds to be available for encumbrance or expenditure until June 30, 2035, and to be available for liquidation until June 30, 2035.
(1) Existing law prohibits the false impersonation of another person in either their personal or official capacity with the intent to steal or defraud, as specified. This bill would define various terms related to artificial intelligence and digital replication, and would clarify that false impersonation includes the use of a digital replica with the intent to impersonate another for purposes of these and other criminal provisions. (2) Existing law creates a civil cause of action against any person who knowingly uses the name, voice, signature, photograph, or likeness of another person, without their consent, for specified purposes. When a photograph or likeness of an employee of the person using the photograph or likeness appearing in an advertisement or other publication is incidental and not essential to the purpose of the publication, existing law establishes a rebuttable presumption affecting the burden of producing evidence that failure to obtain the consent of an employee was not a knowing use of an employee's photograph or likeness. This bill would clarify that, for purposes of this cause of action, a voice or likeness includes a digital replica, as defined. The bill would also remove the provisions establishing the rebuttable presumption when an employee's likeness or photograph appears in an advertisement or other publication. (3) Existing law governs the admissibility of evidence in court proceedings. Existing law prescribes procedures for the authentication of photographs and audio and video recordings. This bill would require the Judicial Council, by no later than January 1, 2027, to review the impact of artificial intelligence on the admissibility of proffered evidence in court proceedings and develop any necessary rules of court to assist courts in assessing claims that proffered evidence has been generated by or manipulated by artificial intelligence and determining whether such evidence is admissible. (4) Existing law, the Unfair Competition Law, establishes a statutory cause of action for unfair competition, including any unlawful, unfair, or fraudulent business act or practice and unfair, deceptive, untrue, or misleading advertising, and establishes remedies and penalties in that regard, including civil penalties. This bill would require, by December 1, 2026, and except as provided, any person or entity that makes available to consumers any artificial intelligence technology that enables a user to create a digital replica, as defined, to provide a consumer warning that unlawful use of the technology to depict another person without prior consent may result in civil or criminal liability for the user. The bill would require the warning to be hyperlinked on any page or screen where the consumer may input a prompt to the technology and included in the terms and conditions for use of the technology. The bill would also impose a civil penalty for violations of the requirement. This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 3344 of the Civil Code proposed by SB 683 to be operative only if this bill and SB 683 are enacted and this bill is enacted last.
Existing law requires the Department of Technology to conduct, in coordination with other interagency bodies as it deems appropriate, a comprehensive inventory of all high-risk automated decision systems (ADS) that have been proposed for use, development, or procurement by, or are being used, developed, or procured by, any state agency. Existing law establishes the Labor and Workforce Development Agency, which is composed of various departments responsible for protecting and promoting the rights and interests of workers in California, including the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement, led by the Labor Commissioner, within the Department of Industrial Relations. This bill would require an employer to provide a written notice that an ADS, for the purpose of making employment-related decisions, not including hiring, is in use at the workplace to all workers that will foreseeably be directly affected by the ADS, as specified. The bill would require the employer to maintain an updated list of all ADS currently in use. The bill would require an employer to notify, as provided, a job applicant that the employer utilizes an ADS when making hiring decisions, if the employer will use the ADS in making decisions for that position. The bill would prohibit an employer from using an ADS that does certain functions and would limit the purposes and manner in which an ADS may be used to make decisions. The bill would authorize a worker to request, and require an employer to provide, a copy of the most recent 12 months of the worker's own data primarily used by an ADS to make a discipline, termination, or deactivation decision, as specified. The bill would require an employer that primarily relied on an ADS to make a discipline, termination, or deactivation decision to provide the affected worker with a written notice, as specified. This bill would prohibit an employer from discharging, threatening to discharge, demoting, suspending, or in any manner discriminating or retaliating against any worker for taking certain actions asserting their rights under the bill. The bill would require the Labor Commissioner to enforce the bill's provisions, as specified, and would authorize a public prosecutor to bring a civil action. The bill would set forth specified types of relief that a plaintiff may seek and specified penalties that an employer that violates these provisions is subject to, including a $500 civil penalty. The bill would also provide that an employer who complies with the requirements related to notice in this bill is not required to comply with any substantially similar provisions under any other state law, except as specified. The bill would not apply to parties covered by a valid collective bargaining agreement if the agreement contains specified information, including an explicit waiver of the bill's provisions. The bill would declare that its provisions do not prohibit any employer from complying with regulatory or contractual requirements in the provision of products or services to the federal government, as defined. This bill would declare that its provisions are severable.
Existing law generally regulates social media platforms, including by requiring a social media company to post terms of service for each social media platform owned or operated by the company in a manner reasonably designed to inform all users of the social media platform of the existence and contents of the terms of service, as prescribed. Existing law generally prohibits a person from using violence or intimidation to interfere with another person's enjoyment of certain rights or because of certain attributes of that person, including the person's political affiliation, race, or sexual orientation, and punishes violations of that law with certain civil penalties or as misdemeanors, as prescribed. This bill would make a social media platform, as defined, that violates the above-referenced provisions of law relating to personal rights through its algorithms that relay content to users or aids, abets, acts in concert, or conspires in violation of those laws, or is a joint tortfeasor in an action alleging a violation of those laws, liable for specified civil penalties. The bill would declare its provisions to be severable and would declare attempted waiver of its provisions to be void and unenforceable. This bill would become operative on January 1, 2027.
Existing law, the Digital Equity Bill of Rights, provides that it is the principle of the state to ensure digital equity for all residents of the state, that, among other things, residents have access to broadband that meets specific requirements, and provides that it is the policy of the state that, to the extent technically feasible, broadband internet subscribers benefit from equal access to broadband internet service within the service area of a broadband provider. This bill, contingent upon funding for this purpose, would require a broadband internet service provider, on or before January 1, 2027, and annually thereafter, to submit to the Department of Consumer Affairs, or the Department of Broadband and Digital Equity if Assembly Bill 693 of the 2025–26 Regular Session is enacted, a report containing broadband internet access service pricing and speed data that includes, among other information, the advertised speeds offered to consumers and the advertised and total prices paid by consumers. The bill would require the department to publish an annual broadband internet access service affordability and speed report aggregating and analyzing the data submitted by the broadband internet service providers and would require the department to make the data submitted by broadband internet service providers available to the public, as specified. The bill would make a broadband internet service provider that fails to comply with these provisions subject to an administrative penalty not to exceed $1,000 per violation per day until compliance is achieved. This bill would require a broadband internet service provider to establish and maintain a dedicated consumer complaint resolution process that allows consumers to submit complaints via telephone, email, and an online portal, and would require a broadband internet service provider to respond to a complaint within 7 business days and provide a resolution, explanation, or corrective action within a specified timeframe. The bill would prescribe remedies for a consumer if a broadband internet service provider fails to resolve a complaint within the specified timeframe or refuses to act in good faith, including the issuance of a minimum credit of $50 for a complaint that remains unresolved beyond 60 days without valid justification. The bill would require a broadband internet service provider to disclose the complaint resolution process and remedies clearly and conspicuously in its terms of service, in its billing statements, and on its internet website. The bill would require a broadband internet service provider to report complaint statistics to the department, as specified. Existing constitutional provisions require that a statute that limits the right of access to the meetings of public bodies or the writings of public officials and agencies be adopted with findings demonstrating the interest protected by the limitation and the need for protecting that interest. This bill would make legislative findings to that effect.
Existing law establishes the Department of Technology, which is supervised by the Director of Technology, within the Government Operations Agency. Existing law requires the department, in consultation with the public, the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) , and the California Broadband Council, by January 1, 2024, to develop a state digital equity plan that includes specified elements, including the identification of barriers to digital equity faced by covered populations in this state. This bill would create the Broadband and Digital Equity Commission with specified membership, and would, on July 1, 2027, repeal the California Broadband Council and establish the members of the council as a committee of the commission, as specified. The bill would provide that each member of the commission, excluding ex officio members, receive compensation of $100 per day, but not to exceed $400 for any commission business authorized by the commission during any month, and the necessary expenses incurred by the member in the performance of the member's duties. The bill would establish the Department of Broadband and Digital Equity in the Government Operations Agency for the purpose of promoting ubiquitous and universal broadband deployment in unserved and underserved areas of the state and to increase broadband adoption throughout the state for the benefit of all Californians. The bill would, on and after July 1, 2027, declare the department to be the only centralized state department for broadband and digital equity activities within the state authorized to establish rules or regulations for broadband internet access service and internet service providers, as provided. The bill would require the commission to appoint the executive director of the department, who shall serve at the pleasure of the commission, as specified, and would authorize the executive director to appoint, with the approval of the commission, necessary staff, as provided. Existing law requires the PUC to develop, implement, and administer the California Advanced Services Fund to encourage deployment of high-quality advanced communications to all Californians, as specified. Existing law establishes the Broadband Loan Loss Reserve Fund in the State Treasury, and continuously appropriates moneys in the fund to the PUC to be available to fund costs related to the financing of the deployment of broadband infrastructure by a local governmental agency or nonprofit organization, as provided. Existing law requires the PUC to maintain and update a statewide, publicly accessible, and interactive map showing the accessibility of broadband service in the state. Existing law requires the Office of Broadband and Digital Literacy to oversee the acquisition and management of contracts for the development and construction of a statewide open-access middle-mile broadband network to provide an opportunity for last-mile providers, anchor institutions, and tribal entities to connect to, and interconnect with other networks and other appropriate connections to, the statewide open-access middle-mile broadband network to facilitate high-speed broadband service. Existing law requires the office to retain a third-party administrator to manage the development, acquisition, construction, maintenance, and operation of a statewide open-access middle-mile broadband network, as specified. Existing law requires the office, with the third-party administrator, to develop and construct a statewide open-access middle-mile broadband network that prioritizes last-mile connections to unserved and underserved areas and locations. Existing law requires the office and third-party administrator to work directly with last-mile project grant awardees to ensure that network segments, including prioritized stand-alone Department of Transportation construction projects, support last-mile connections, and requires the office and the third-party administrator, to the extent feasible, to minimize disruption due to excavations, as provided. This bill would delete the provisions described in the above paragraph. The bill would, on and after July 1, 2027, require the department to assume all administrative functions of the California Advanced Services Fund and the Broadband Loan Loss Reserve Fund, and require the department to administer and maintain the interactive map showing the accessibility of broadband service in the state and the statewide open-access middle-mile broadband network, as specified. The bill would authorize the department to perform work, at the request of the commission, that the commission deems necessary to carry out its duties and responsibilities, but requires the commission to consider the expertise and resources available to the department, and specifies that the commission is not prohibited from using the services of other public or private entities. The bill would require the commission to advise and assist the department, the agency, and the Legislature in formulating and evaluating state policies and plans for broadband and digital equity programs in the state, and would authorize the commission to participate in relevant federal government rulemakings to advocate on behalf of the department and the state's interests. The bill would require the department to report to the Legislature by July 1, 2028, and at least annually thereafter, on the activities of the department and actions taken by the commission, and would require the report to include, among other things, the number of unserved and underserved households in the state, and progress toward increasing connectivity. The bill would require the department to establish a process to enable California residents, consumer advocates, and local governments to make complaints regarding any activity that may result in digital discrimination of access.
The California AI Transparency Act requires a person that creates, codes, or otherwise produces a generative artificial intelligence system that has over 1,000,000 monthly visitors or users and is publicly accessible within the geographic boundaries of the state to make available an AI detection tool at no cost to the user that, among other things, allows a user to assess whether image, video, or audio content, or content that is any combination thereof, was created or altered by the covered provider's generative artificial intelligence system. The California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 prohibits certain businesses from selling or sharing the personal information of consumers if the business has actual knowledge that the consumer is less than 16 years of age, unless the consumer, if the consumer is at least 13 years of age and less than 16 years of age, or the consumer's parent or guardian, if the consumer is less than 13 years of age, has affirmatively authorized the sale or sharing of the consumer's personal information. This bill, the Leading Ethical AI Development (LEAD) for Kids Act, would, among other things related to the use of certain artificial intelligence systems by children, prohibit a person, partnership, corporation, business entity, or state or local government agency that makes a companion chatbot available to users from making a companion chatbot available to a child unless the companion chatbot is not foreseeably capable of doing certain things that could harm a child, including encouraging the child to engage in self-harm, suicidal ideation, violence, consumption of drugs or alcohol, or disordered eating. The act would authorize the Attorney General to recover a certain civil penalty for a violation of the bill, as prescribed. The act would authorize a child who suffers actual harm as a result of a violation of the bill, or a parent or guardian acting on behalf of that child, to bring a civil action to recover, among other relief, actual damages. This bill would provide that its provisions are severable.
