Role: Governor of California (2019–present) Party: Democratic
Gavin Newsom is the 40th governor of California. Because California hosts the majority of US frontier AI developers, his decisions on state AI bills — which to sign, which to veto, and under what framing — shape the bound of US state-level AI regulation in the absence of a federal frontier-model statute.
Background
Newsom has served as California's governor since January 2019. He previously served as Lieutenant Governor (2011–2019) and as Mayor of San Francisco (2004–2011).
Frontier-AI legislation
In September 2024, Newsom vetoed SB 1047 (Safe and Secure Innovation for Frontier Artificial Intelligence Models Act), the first serious US attempt to impose safety requirements on frontier AI developers. His veto message argued the bill was insufficiently targeted, applying uniform requirements regardless of whether a model was deployed in high-risk settings, and that regulation should be based on "empirical evidence and science" rather than model-size thresholds. The veto was framed as pro-innovation but not anti-regulation; Newsom simultaneously commissioned a working-group report to inform a follow-on bill (SB 1047 source summary).
In September 2025, Newsom signed SB 53 (Transparency in Frontier AI Act), a narrower successor to SB 1047 focused on transparency, whistleblower protections, and incident reporting rather than ex-ante safety requirements. According to FPF and Brookings analysis, SB 53 is the most significant US state-level frontier-model law currently in force, and it reflects the empirical, targeted approach Newsom's veto message had called for.
In October 2025, Newsom signed SB 243 (Companion Chatbot Safeguards), which imposes disclosure, minor-protection, and crisis-referral requirements on companion AI chatbots. The law placed California ahead of federal regulators on mental-health-related AI harm.
All three bills were authored by state senator Scott Wiener.
AI workforce policy
On May 21, 2026, Newsom signed a first-in-the-nation AI workforce-disruption executive order directing state agencies to develop, within 180 days, modernized severance standards, employment-insurance reforms, worker-ownership models, universal basic capital (UBC) concepts, an AI workforce-impact dashboard, and revisions to California's WARN Act. The order was signed the same day President Trump postponed his cybersecurity-and-frontier-AI executive order (Claude Mythos Preview § Trump AI EO), setting California's anticipatory labor-policy posture apart from the federal posture (Source: gov.ca.gov).
Positions and political context
Newsom's stated frontier-AI posture is to regulate carefully rather than preemptively. He has criticized the Trump administration's attempts to preempt state AI regulation, via America's AI Action Plan and Executive Order 14365 — Ensuring a National Policy Framework for AI, as well as what he characterized as overbroad early drafts of state legislation. He is widely considered a 2028 presidential candidate, and his AI record is expected to feature in that positioning.
Relationships
- related: Scott Wiener — Newsom signed Wiener's SB 53 and SB 243, and vetoed his SB 1047.
- related: California SB 1047 — Safe and Secure Innovation for Frontier AI Models Act (enrolled + veto) — vetoed.
- related: California SB 53 — Transparency in Frontier AI Act — signed.
- related: California SB 243 — Companion Chatbots — signed.
- contradicts: America's AI Action Plan — Newsom has pushed back on federal preemption of state AI regulation.
- contradicts: Executive Order 14365 — Ensuring a National Policy Framework for AI — same federalism tension.
- instance-of: Techno-Federalism: How Regulatory Fragmentation Shapes the U.S.-China AI Race — Newsom shapes the state-level half of the US AI regulatory architecture.