California Passes AI Chatbot Safety Bill After Sam Altman Lobbies Gavin Newsom

Sam Altman Tried to Lobby Gavin Newsom Before Kids' AI Chatbot Safety Bill Passed

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman tried to speak with California Gov. Gavin Newsom last week in an effort to influence legislation in the state about how chatbots are allowed to interact with kids, according to a new report from Politico. The legislation passed on Monday and still needs to be signed by Newsom to become law. California Senate Bill 1119, which was written by state senator Steve Padilla and assemblymembers Buffy Wicks and Rebecca Bauer-Kahan, requires AI companies to determine a user's age, give tools to parents to limit their kids' time with chatbots like ChatGPT, and undergo independent audits, among other restrictions. The bill would also prohibit AI companies from serving ads to kids that rely on any personal information gleaned from chatbot interactions with a given child. It would also make it illegal to sell data collected on kids from chats. Chatbots would still be able to serve "age-appropriate contextual advertising" to kids, according to the bill's language, though ads will need to be labeled as ads. The bill was amended on Friday with a number of changes, including a move to narrow the situations when families could sue AI companies, according to Politico. It's unclear what role, if any, Altman may have played in getting changes to the legislation and the company told Politico that Newsom spoke with a wide variety of stakeholders. Reached for comment over email Tuesday, an OpenAI spokesperson directed Gizmodo to a statement supporting the legislation, which was published shortly before the bill passed the legislature on Monday. OpenAI wouldn't comment on the record about Altman's outreach to Newsom but a person familiar with the matter denied that the governor and the OpenAI CEO spoke directly last week. "SB 1119 builds on youth safety measures that OpenAI has supported through our products, global policy principles, advocacy in California, and work on the Parents & Kids Safe AI Act. We encourage Governor Newsom to sign the bill into law," the statement reads. OpenAI launched ChatGPT for Teens on Aug. 18, which introduced safeguards into ChatGPT for kids between the ages of 13-17. "It is designed to help users under 18 learn, think critically, and build while promoting healthy use, providing built-in safeguards, and giving parents additional controls," the statement explains. "If our system estimates someone is under 18 or they state their age is between 13 and 17, they are automatically placed into ChatGPT for Teens. Those protections are part of the baseline experience, not optional settings that users can turn off." Newsom has long been a friend of Silicon Valley, vetoing bills that he saw as too restrictive of innovation for Big Tech. But the tide has certainly turned as the public sours on recent tech like AI, which has often been seen as a destructive force when left unregulated. The data center backlash has gotten the most headlines in recent months, but 2026 has also seen stories of kids who died by suicide after being egged on by AI chatbots. Newsom is term limited and will be exiting his role as governor on Jan. 7, 2027. But he's widely expected to run for president in 2028, presumably as a Democrat. We say presumably because he's done a lot in recent years to court far-right Republicans, including by hosting a podcast featuring the likes of Charlie Kirk and Steve Bannon where he seemed to agree more than disagree with the extremist MAGA base. Democrat Xavier Becerra and Republican Steve Hilton are running to be governor of California in November, and while they may disagree on a number of issues the two men seem generally friendly to Big Tech on most issues. Hilton believes in less regulation across the board and is married to Rachel Whetstone, who has worked for companies like Uber, Netflix, Facebook, and Google. Becerra has proposed modest guardrails for AI and has received significant donations from Silicon Valley. Becerra has a commanding lead in virtually all polling on the California gubernatorial race, with the latest from University of California Berkeley Institute of Government Studies showing most people preferring the Democrat (55%) to Hilton (37%).

California Democrats pass more than 20 bills to curtail AI and social media

California Democratic lawmakers passed 26 bills related to AI and social media during the final week of their session.Arturo Holmes / Getty Images file California's Democratic-controlled Legislature passed a torrent of bills as their session came to a close Monday night, including more than two dozen measures that would restrict various uses of AI and curtail how social media companies' products can be used by minors. Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom has until the end of the month to decide which ones to sign into law, moves that could signal his approach to a series of hot-button issues in a potential 2028 presidential campaign. Many of the 26 bills related to AI and social media that California's Democrats passed during the final week of their legislative session further seek to curtail some of the features tech companies offer that experts warn are addictive, while others would explicitly pull back the use of AI in various facets of everyday life. One bill passed would ban social media companies from providing "addictive features" -- including autoplaying videos -- to users under 16 years old, while another would tighten the state's existing restrictions on chatbots for use by minors by implementing landmark age verification requirements and rules related to what ads minors can see. That bill, as well as another measure, would also make social media platforms and AI chatbots liable for financial damages if they don't take measures to protect children from harm. Experts have said those bills could help create the most robust framework in the country designed to protect minors using AI chatbots and social media. State Sen. Steve Padilla, an author of one of the bills, framed the broader push as a counter to the lack of effort on regulating AI by Washington, D.C. "While Washington is focused on catering to their tech oligarchs, California is filling the regulatory void to protect our children and prevent another repeat of the social media disaster," Padilla said in a statement. He added that the bills regulating AI in California could "become the national blueprint to build a safer online world for our kids." On the AI front specifically, one bill passed would require all instructors in the California State University system to be be human beings, not AI bots, though instructors could still use AI as part of their offerings to students, while another bill passed would ban employers from using AI surveillance products that collect "neural data" that helps employers "recognize" their workers's "emotional state." Another bars retailers from using certain forms of dynamic pricing, identified in the bill as "surveillance pricing." A number of other bills pertain specifically to regulating the use of AI in the health care space. One bill would require that therapy and psychotherapy be provided only by qualified, licensed professionals and explicitly bars them from offering services for therapy and psychotherapy that are provided by chatbots or companion chatbots. Another one would tighten how health care providers use AI and chatbots, attempting to make clearer that such machines are still subject to existing medical information confidentiality laws. Newsom hasn't publicly spoken about how he plans to approach many of the passed bills. A spokesperson for the governor didn't immediately respond to questions from NBC News. Politico reported Tuesday that OpenAI CEO Sam Altman reached out directly to Newsom over concerns he had with some of the AI-related measures offered in one of the bills passed by legislators Monday night. Newsom has throughout his two terms in office largely governed as an ally of the tech industry, given that his own interests have heavily overlapped with the industry's. Silicon Valley's AI boom has helped fill his state coffers with tax revenues and his campaign coffers with contributions from tech industry leaders. But as he inches closer toward an anticipated presidential run, he's taken a populist turn on the issue and has begun rolling out initiatives to beef up AI controls. Earlier this year, he signed an executive order requiring state agencies to collaborate with industry groups, academics and organized labor to work on plans for offsetting the effects of AI on California workers. And this summer, Newsom signed into law two lower-profile bills pertaining to AI: One making clear that the services offered by elementary and secondary public schools in the state come from "natural persons," not bots; and another requiring all cars with location-tracking services to make it clear that such service is enabled. Meanwhile, California lawmakers also passed bills during the final hours of their session related to law enforcement and the Trump administration. One bill would ban law enforcement officials in the state from using electric shock gloves and would ban agencies from using money to buy them. The law would also require the state to conduct a study on the gloves by 2029. The proposed law was a direct response to plans released last month by Trump's Immigration and Customs Enforcement to spend up to $20 million to buy the gloves, will be issued to officers and agents working for Homeland Security Investigations and Enforcement Removal Operations, both subdivisions of ICE. California lawmakers also passed bills to ease the state's parole program for elderly inmates and another that adds additional state agencies to an existing list of law enforcement agencies whose officials can't wear masks.

California passes 'broadest set of guardrails' on AI chatbots targeted at kids

California legislators on Monday sent two bills to Gov. Gavin Newsom that would change how chatbots are made and regulated in the state. The legislation could have ramifications across the country for the still-emerging technology. Senate Bill 1119 would require companion chatbot operators to analyze the design of their products for any potential harm on children and submit safety audits to the attorney general, who could file lawsuits against companies that violate the measure. "I think we're going to be able to say that we have the broadest set of guardrails in the nation," its author state Sen. Steve Padilla, D-Chula Vista, said after the bill passed. It was inspired by the 2025 death of Adam Raine, who began using ChatGPT to help with homework but then started to rely on the chatbot for emotional support. He killed himself after discussing suicidal methods with the system, according to a lawsuit filed by his parents. He was 16. The measure was named Adam's Law in his honor. "Powerful Al companionship chatbots were unleashed on our kids with vastly inadequate protections, and every day we hear of harms caused by the use of these powerful products," his parents Matthew and Maria Raine said in a statement. "Adam's Law is a serious and much needed step forward for Al companion chatbot safety in the state of California." OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, supported the measure. Senate Bill 867 would prohibit for four years the sale and manufacturing of toys for children under 16 years old that include a companion chatbot. It was also authored by Padilla, who said the pause was needed to ensure children's toys are safe. Lauren Goodman, a leader of the Mothers Against Media Addiction's Marin County chapter, and mom to a 14-year-old boy, said young people deserve the protection the bill would provide. "I am happy our lawmakers are mobilizing to do again what the basic contract of a society is," she said, "which is to protect our most vulnerable population: children." SB 1119 was opposed by business, software and technology trade groups. An organization representing California retailers was against SB 867. The Civil Justice Association of California, which pushes back on bills that would lead to more lawsuits for businesses in the state, opposed both measures. The group said the audits required in the first bill could burden companies with repeated reviews and warned the second could invite more legal cases. That said, both passed the Legislature with strong bipartisan support. It is unclear what Newsom will do with the measures. But during a news conference on Monday, he said in general he was happy with the work his staff, and legislators, did on the topic. "We landed 90 planes on some of the toughest issues as it relates to chatbot bills and child safety," Newsom said. He has until the end of September to decide on the fate of these two bills. This story was originally published September 1, 2026 at 7:56 PM with the headline "California passes 'broadest set of guardrails' on AI chatbots targeted at kids."