AB 1405 is a California Assembly bill authored by Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan (D-Orinda), chair of the Assembly Privacy and Consumer Protection Committee, in the 2025–2026 legislative session. It creates a state registry for AI auditors and sets standards for their independence, transparency, and integrity. Governor Gavin Newsom signed it on September 9, 2026 together with SB 813, and it was chaptered the same day as Chapter 178 (Source: leginfo.legislature.ca.gov); the Governor's office described the pair as the first laws in the United States establishing independent third-party audits of AI systems (Source: gov.ca.gov; insideaipolicy.com).
Structure of the paired framework
On June 17, 2026 the sponsors announced that the two measures would be amended to operate in concert; AB 1405's next amended version is dated August 25, 2026 (Source: leginfo.legislature.ca.gov). As announced, SB 813 establishes the California Artificial Intelligence Standards and Safety Commission and the framework for independent verification organizations that assess AI systems and models for compliance with state law, while AB 1405 supplies the registry of auditors and the requirements those auditors must satisfy — including auditor independence, ethical practice, and financial independence. The sponsors stated that both measures had to be enacted for the framework to take effect, and the July 2, 2026 amended version of SB 813 made its operation expressly contingent on AB 1405's enactment (Source: sd05.senate.ca.gov).
The paired design described above does not survive in SB 813 as enacted, which complicates the account of how the two measures fit together. SB 813's enrolled text, chaptered as Chapter 179, contains no commission, assigns the IVO designation duties directly to the Government Operations Agency on or before January 1, 2028, and carries no contingency on AB 1405 (California SB 813 — enrolled text (Chapter 179, 2026)). It also contains the designation machinery this page attributes to AB 1405's side of the pairing — application requirements, suspension and termination procedures, qualification criteria, and the independence and conflict-of-interest tests including a prohibition on outcome-contingent payment. AB 1405's chaptered text shows that the two laws create separate instruments administered by the same agency: SB 813 adds Government Code Chapter 14 (IVO designation), while AB 1405 adds Government Code Chapter 5.9.5 (Sections 11549.80 onward), establishing a distinct AI Auditor Registry for any person that assesses an AI system or model on behalf of a third party. Neither chaptered text refers to the other (Source: leginfo.legislature.ca.gov; California SB 813 — enrolled text (Chapter 179, 2026)).
Under the paired design as announced, SB 813's commission would develop the standards by which auditors assess AI systems, the procedures for suspending or terminating an auditor's registration, and the criteria determining whether an auditor qualifies as an independent verification organization, and AB 1405 would supply the register those procedures act upon. In the enacted SB 813 those three functions sit with the Government Operations Agency rather than with a commission (California SB 813 — enrolled text (Chapter 179, 2026)).
Key provisions (as enacted, Chapter 178)
The chapter defines an AI auditor as a person, partnership or corporation that assesses an AI system or model on behalf of a third party, and a covered AI audit as an audit to assess internal controls, processes or systems implemented for an AI system or model that are necessary for compliance with state law. It borrows the definition of artificial intelligence already used in California statute (Source: leginfo.legislature.ca.gov).
By January 1, 2029 the Government Operations Agency must establish an AI Auditor Registry on its website, fix annual registration fees not exceeding the reasonable costs of administration, and create a mechanism for natural persons to report misconduct by a registered auditor. From that date the agency must issue each registered auditor a unique registration number, publish registration numbers and registration information with a statement that registration is not a recommendation or endorsement by the State, and retain misconduct reports for as long as the auditor remains registered plus 10 years. Beginning January 1, 2029, no person may offer, sell or conduct a covered AI audit unless registered, and the registration number must appear on all advertising for covered AI audit services. Fees go to a new AI Auditors' Registration Fund, available on appropriation (Source: leginfo.legislature.ca.gov).
A registering auditor must supply its business name and contact details, the California laws or regulations under which it conducts covered audits, relevant certifications or accreditations, a description of up to 500 words, and a standard operating procedure citing the standards it applies (for example ISO, NIST, auditing and assurance standard-setters, or professional accountancy bodies) and the basis for any accuracy or validity claims, with redaction permitted for trade secrets. Audit reports to the auditee must state scope and objectives, results with supporting documentation, measures that would address each deficiency, whether the auditee adhered to its internal safety standards and protocols within scope, the audit's limitations and evidence gaps, and a signed statement of conformity with the chapter. Records must be kept for at least 10 years (Source: leginfo.legislature.ca.gov).
The independence standards bar an auditor from auditing where a financial, business, employment or other interest would reasonably be expected to impair its independence, while stating that reasonable compensation for performing the audit is not by itself such an interest; bar auditing the auditor's own work; bar individuals from seeking employment with the auditee during the audit; and bar assigning anyone who worked on the audited subject matter for the auditee in the preceding 12 months. Auditors may not prevent employees from reporting non-compliance to the Attorney General, the Labor Commissioner or the registry's misconduct mechanism, or retaliate against them. Licensed accountants and permitted accounting firms that follow the California Accountancy Act and AICPA standards are deemed to meet the reporting and independence requirements. A violation is grounds for removal from the registry, after notice and an opportunity to cure or contest, and for referral to the Attorney General; violations by accountants are referred to the California Board of Accountancy (Source: leginfo.legislature.ca.gov).
Status
As of the June 17, 2026 announcement AB 1405 sat on the Senate Appropriations Committee's Suspense File with amendments planned. It was introduced on February 21, 2025, amended in the Assembly on April 3, 2025 and in the Senate on July 9, 2025 and August 25, 2026, enrolled on September 3, 2026, and approved by the Governor and filed with the Secretary of State on September 9, 2026 (Source: leginfo.legislature.ca.gov). The Governor's office restated on September 16, 2026 that Newsom had signed AB 1405 "to require third-party audits of AI systems" (Source: gov.ca.gov). As enacted, the law does not itself require any developer to commission an audit; it regulates who may conduct covered AI audits and how, from January 1, 2029 (Source: leginfo.legislature.ca.gov). The provisions above were read from the chaptered text on the Legislature's site; that text has not yet been captured to Raw Sources/ or ingested.
Governor Newsom's Executive Order N-9-26 of September 18, 2026 directs the Government Operations Agency to perform its AI Auditor Registry duties under Government Code § 11549.82(a), and to begin the actions § 11549.82(b) requires, by December 1, 2027 rather than January 1, 2029 California Executive Order N-9-26 — signed text.
Reactions
OpenAI formally endorsed AB 1405 on September 9, 2026, describing it as creating "registration, independence, transparency, and accountability requirements for AI auditors," as one of four California bills endorsed that day (The AI policy window is open. We need to act. (Chris Lehane, OpenAI, September 2026)).
Announcing the pairing, Bauer-Kahan said the bills would build "a system of independent, verified auditors and known standards that protect our communities from AI harms and unchecked power in the hands of a few companies" (Source: sd05.senate.ca.gov). Technology companies opposed the paired measures during passage.
The developer-pays conflict of interest that Gabriel Weil identified in certification-for-shield designs applies to the auditor registry as much as to the standards commission: an auditor selected and paid by the developer it assesses faces the incentive structure described in Independent Verification Organizations (IVOs) (Don't Let AI Developers Hire Their Own Referees (Weil, July 2026)). SB 813 as enacted addresses one element of that structure and not the other: Section 8898.1(c)(2)(C) permits an IVO to accept payment from the assessed party "at reasonable market rates" while prohibiting terms that "condition any payment or the amount of any payment on the results of their assessment" (California SB 813 — enrolled text (Chapter 179, 2026)). AB 1405 takes the same position on payment: reasonable compensation for performing a covered AI audit does not by itself impair independence, and the chapter adds self-review, recruitment and 12-month cooling-off restrictions rather than a bar on auditee payment (Source: leginfo.legislature.ca.gov).
In a POLITICO interview published September 17, 2026, Newsom described AB 1405 and SB 813 as "first steps to the kind of independent third-party reviews and safety standards that people are advocating for" (Source: politico.com).
Relationships
- related: California Executive Order N-9-26 (independent verification and frontier AI safety) — advances the § 11549.82 registry deadlines to December 1, 2027
- related: California SB 813 (AI independent verification organizations) — the paired measure, signed the same day; the mutual contingency the sponsors described does not appear in SB 813 as enacted.
- related: California SB 813 — enrolled text (Chapter 179, 2026) — SB 813's enrolled text, the only enacted text of the pair held.
- instance-of: State-Level AI Regulation — a California entry in the state AI-legislation landscape.
- related: Independent Verification Organizations (IVOs) — the auditor model this registry implements.
- related: AI Benchmarks and Evaluation — third-party assessment of AI systems.
- related: California SB 53 — California's frontier-model transparency law, a separate track.
- related: The AI policy window is open. We need to act. (Chris Lehane, OpenAI, September 2026) — OpenAI's September 2026 endorsement.
- related: California SB 1119 (companion chatbot safeguards for minors), California AB 1864 (gene-synthesis and benchtop-synthesis screening) — endorsed by OpenAI in the same post.