Governor Gavin Newsom signed a sweeping executive order on March 30 establishing California's independent authority to assess AI vendors, directly contradicting the Trump administration's push for federal preemption of state AI regulations.
Unlike the Trump administration, California remains committed to ensuring that AI solutions adopted and deployed by the state cannot be misused by bad actors, the Governor's office stated.
"California remains committed to ensuring that AI solutions adopted and deployed by the state cannot be misused by bad actors."
The order directs California agencies to develop new vendor certification standards within four months, addressing child sexual abuse material prevention, civil rights protection, surveillance prevention, and bias mitigation. It also mandates first-of-its-kind watermarking requirements for AI-generated content.
When the Trump administration designated Anthropic as a supply-chain risk, California signaled it would not automatically follow. The state's Department of General Services will review federal designations and make independent determinations about doing business with flagged companies.
The executive order directly responds to Trump's December 2025 order, which threatened to withhold federal funding from states with AI regulations deemed inconsistent with the administration's vision. California Democrats scoffed at the threat and doubled down on local control.
As home to much of the nation's AI industry, California is betting that state-level experimentation produces better outcomes than top-down federal mandates. Companies complying with California's standards often do so nationwide to avoid fragmentation.