OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR

September 29, 2025

To the Members of the California State Senate:

I am signing Senate Bill 53, the Transparency in Frontier Artificial Intelligence Act, which will establish state-level oversight of the use, assessment, and governance of advanced artificial intelligence (AI) systems. This bill will strengthen California’s ability to monitor, evaluate, and respond to critical safety incidents associated with these advanced systems, empowering the state to act quickly to protect public safety, cybersecurity, and national security.

California is the birthplace of modern technology and innovation, and home to many of the world’s top AI researchers and developers, who in turn have created more leading AI companies than any other region on the planet. Our state’s status as a global leader in technology allows us a unique opportunity to provide a blueprint for well-balanced AI policies beyond our borders — especially in the absence of a comprehensive federal AI policy framework and national AI safety standards.

In pursuit of this balance, last fall, I called on world-leading AI experts to prepare a report that outlines the capabilities and potential risks of frontier AI models. That report, released in late spring, provides us with a roadmap to regulate frontier AI prudently and proactively, ensuring we balance innovation with public safety. SB 53 builds on the work of this report and ensures Californians — and by extension, the nation — can have greater confidence that frontier AI models are responsibly developed and deployed.

At the same time, SB 53 also recognizes that meaningful oversight of AI safety, particularly as it relates to matters of national security, involves joint work with the federal government. Should the federal government or Congress adopt national AI standards that maintain or exceed the protections in this bill, subsequent action will be necessary to provide alignment between policy frameworks — ensuring businesses are not subject to duplicative or conflicting requirements across jurisdictions. SB 53 fulfills this obligation by authorizing a compliance pathway for critical incident-reporting requirements.

To the degree that additional clarification is required, I encourage the Legislature to monitor actions at the federal level and, if and when federal standards are adopted, ensure alignment with those standards — all while maintaining the high bar established by SB 53.

California has long been a leader in technology and innovation. In enacting this law, we are once again demonstrating our leadership, by protecting our residents today while pressing the federal government to act on national standards. The future happens here first.

Sincerely,

Gavin Newsom

GOVERNOR GAVIN NEWSOM · SACRAMENTO, CA 95814 · (916) 445-2841