Newsom signs 13 AI bills on deadline day, including a ban on firing workers by AI alone, and vetoes three

Governor Gavin Newsom used the 30 September deadline to sign 13 AI bills, and vetoed three more the same day. On 28 September this page reported that the session's main AI measures had been waiting on his desk since early September; this is the outcome.

Four of the signed bills are about work. SB 947 bars employers from relying only on AI to discipline or fire workers. SB 951 requires notice when a mass layoff, relocation or termination is caused by an AI system. AB 1331 and AB 1883 cover workplace surveillance. The rest: SB 1000 strengthens the California AI Transparency Act; AB 2713 makes it illegal to delete digital watermarks; SB 1111 covers digital replicas; SB 1159 AI transparency and governance; AB 1979 and SB 503 AI in health care; SB 574 attorneys, arbitrators and judicial officers; AB 2392 colleges buying generative AI; and AB 1864 gene synthesis equipment.

AB 2656 would have required public employers to give unions at least 45 days' written notice before bringing in generative AI. Newsom wrote that it “would impose redundant administrative layers on public agencies and slow the deployment of even the most innocuous tools.” AB 2575 would have let direct-care health workers override clinical decision systems, with protection from retaliation; he said those protections “do not protect workers as intended”. SB 903 would have banned companion chatbots in psychotherapy; he called it “overly broad”.

The release opens with a swipe at Washington, a day after the White House ordered agencies to call AI “Super Intelligence”: “Super intelligence is clearly not coming from the White House – that's why California continues to lead.” None of the 13 bills sets up frontier-model inspectors or a kill switch; that is the separate effort this page covered on 22 and 24 September.

• Confirmed 13 AI bills signed on 30 September, including SB 947 (no discipline or firing by AI alone), SB 951 (notice of AI-caused mass layoffs), SB 1000 and AB 2713. Office of the Governor of California
• Confirmed AB 2656, which required at least 45 days' written notice to unions before public employers bring in generative AI, was vetoed. Governor's veto message, AB 2656
• Confirmed SB 903, a ban on companion chatbots in psychotherapy, was vetoed as “overly broad”. Governor's veto message, SB 903
• Confirmed AB 2575, a right for health workers to override clinical decision systems, was vetoed because its anti-retaliation provisions “do not protect workers as intended”. Governor's veto message, AB 2575