California signs SB 813, creating AI safety verification organizations

California Senate Bill 813 establishes a state framework for Independent Verification Organizations (IVOs) that assess AI systems and models for safety risks.

Governor Gavin Newsom signed the bill on September 9, 2026, and Senate materials state that SB 813 is the first such AI safety law in the nation, and it takes effect Jan. 1.

What it is

SB 813, the Voluntary AI Standards Act, won bipartisan approval in the Senate on a vote of 31-7 before reaching the governor's desk.

The law would create the California Artificial Intelligence Standards and Safety Commission, which in turn would designate AI expert panels, Independent Verification Organizations (IVOs), that act as standards bodies.

AI developers can seek voluntary certification from the IVO, and certification comes with continued monitoring and the ability of the IVO to revoke certification at any time.

What it requires

The chaptered version requires the Government Operations Agency to take certain actions related to the selection and regulation of certain entities, defined as independent verification organizations, designated by the agency as having demonstrated expertise in assessing the risks posed by an AI system or model.

The agency must also convene working groups to solicit stakeholder input in the identification of AI safety standards.

Nine days after signing, the governor's executive order directed state agencies to fully implement SB 813 by May 1, faster than the law's original timeline.

That same order asked experts to develop recommendations to advance the creation of a kill switch for frontier models, with the efficacy of the switch verified on an ongoing basis by an independent verification organization.

What security leaders should do

Organizations that develop or deploy frontier AI models and operate in California should track how the Government Operations Agency defines IVO qualification criteria, since certification and monitoring will run through those designated bodies rather than the state directly. Security teams should also prepare internal definitions of loss-of-control incidents in advance, given that the governor's order calls for updating critical-safety-incident categories to cover events like unauthorized model access to external systems. Because the kill-switch concept is still under study rather than mandated by SB 813 itself, CISOs should treat any emergency-shutdown requirement as a near-term compliance item to watch for in the legislation state Sen. Jerry McNerney has said he plans to introduce in December, rather than an obligation already in effect under the current statute.