Gov. Gavin Newsom signed SB 813 and AB 1405 on Sept. 9, giving California the first state-registered independent AI auditor framework in the country. The votes weren’t close: the Senate cleared SB 813 37-0, the Assembly 53-4. Newsom’s own office is calling it first-in-the-nation.

SB 813, authored by McNerney, creates Independent Verification Organizations, IVOs, designated by the state to assess AI systems for compliance with California law. AB 1405, from Bauer-Kahan, stands up an online AI Auditor Registry. After Jan. 1, 2029, unregistered parties generally can’t conduct a covered AI audit. The Government Operations Agency has until Jan. 1, 2028 to certify the first IVOs, and the AI Standards and Safety Commission has to write the methodology standards those auditors will apply before that deadline lands.

Here’s the part most coverage buries. SB 813 defines a “covered AI audit” as an audit of controls or systems necessary for compliance with state law, developer or deployer. Per TechTimes, that reaches any company deploying an off-the-shelf model to screen job applicants, price policies, or make other calls that affect people. Not just frontier labs.

That plugs directly into California’s automated decision-making rules, already in effect since Jan. 1, 2026, covering employment, insurance, housing, healthcare, and essential services. Small businesses running AI for hiring, lead scoring, or customer-facing decisions are deployers under that regime.

The sharpest teeth are procedural. AB 1405 requires auditors to log evidence gaps on the record, so a vendor’s refusal to cooperate becomes a documented deficiency, not a private dispute. Founders picking AI tools now are effectively signing 2029 audit exposure today.

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