AB 1864 is a California Assembly bill of the 2025–2026 legislative session that would require gene-synthesis providers and manufacturers of benchtop synthesis equipment to follow federal screening standards. It had passed the legislature and was headed to Governor Gavin Newsom as of September 9, 2026, when OpenAI announced its endorsement, describing the measure as "strengthening an important physical safeguard against AI-enabled biological threats" (The AI policy window is open. We need to act. (Chris Lehane, OpenAI, September 2026)).
The bill text is not held here, and the account above rests on a single source — OpenAI's description in its September 9, 2026 policy post. The scope of the federal screening standards the bill would incorporate, the obligations it places on equipment manufacturers as distinct from synthesis providers, and its enforcement mechanism are not established.
Relation to the biosecurity screening debate
The measure addresses the nucleic-acid synthesis screening chokepoint rather than model capabilities: the argument, as OpenAI frames it, is that screening at the point of physical synthesis constrains misuse regardless of whether a model has supplied a design. See AI Biosecurity.
At the federal level OpenAI announced support in May 2026 for the bipartisan Cotton–Klobuchar Biosecurity Modernization and Innovation Act, which would establish a federal framework for screening gene-synthesis orders (Source: openaiglobalaffairs.substack.com). AB 1864's incorporation of federal screening standards into California law is the state-level counterpart to that position, consistent with the state-convergence argument OpenAI calls reverse federalism (Reverse Federalism).
Relationships
- instance-of: State-Level AI Regulation — a California measure in the state AI-legislation landscape.
- related: AI Biosecurity — the risk the screening requirement addresses.
- supports: The AI policy window is open. We need to act. (Chris Lehane, OpenAI, September 2026) — OpenAI's endorsement and description of the bill.
- related: California SB 813 (AI independent verification organizations), California AB 1405 (AI auditor registry), California SB 1119 (companion chatbot safeguards for minors) — endorsed by OpenAI in the same September 9, 2026 post.